This is exactly what happened JakartaAs Thames Water takes over half of the city’s water management and charges the highest tariffs in Southeast Asia,
This is what happened in Tanzania, where, under pressure from the World Bank, the capital Dar es Salaam leased its water supply to a consortium of British, German and Tanzanian companies, in return for a six-year tax break.
The British government is said to have given nearly half a million pounds to the “free market” lobby group Adam Smith International to promote the project. report By ~ Guardian.
The public relations campaign was not enough to quell the high tariffs, water supply interruptions, and subsequent water shortages. Two years later, the Der es Salaam authorities terminated the contract early and expelled the company’s executives.
Private
The government is still pouring public funds into purchasing water infrastructure overseas. It was awarded Adam Smith International £400 million from 2012 to 2017.
Today, the lobby group proudly advocates a “market-based approach” to water supply in 17 countries, mainly in southern Africa.
Also, during her short and notorious tenure as British Prime Minister, Leeds Truss renamed international aid into a public company called British International Investment (BII).
At that time, The NGO predicted BII said it would “focus solely on private sector investment and revenue generation.” Their prediction came true. BII in 2023 announced the deal Facilitating private investment in water infrastructure across Africa.
Another publicly funded initiative, the UK’s Sustainable Infrastructure Programme, aims to foster private sector partnerships in the Caribbean and South America.
assault
Mid-term evaluation of the project Reported Success in working with Sedapal, Lima’s municipal water company, to develop a “robust stakeholder engagement strategy” with the private sector.
In 2019, as Extinction Rebellion was “flowing like water” and paralysing central London, a river of protests also flowed through Lima.
News Source People were reported to have filled the streets chanting, “Water is a right, not a privilege.” They were angry that the government had issued a decree allowing private investors to buy all of Sedapal’s shares.
The protests were part of a long history of resistance to water privatization in South America. Decades ago, in Cochabamba Water RebellionWhen the California multinational corporation Bechtel took over the city’s water utility, a mass movement erupted, resulting in blockades, roadblocks, and a general strike.
A cross-class coalition of students, farmers and street vendors fought against privatization and brutal police brutality, and won.
Destroyed by
In this country, water meter screens provide a glimpse of resistance, as researchers Loftus, Marsh and Nash put it: 2016 paper: Just as people rebel against submission to the abstract world of clock time by pressing the snooze button on their alarm clocks, people “punished by the water meter” can find ways to fight back against financialized water systems.
That’s exactly what Caroline O’Reilly was doing one summer day in 2013, sitting in a ditch by the side of the road. Southern Water was on a mission to implement mandatory metering in her community, and the Israeli company Arad supplied the meters.
People like O’Reilly, who were mobilized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, refused to install meters in solidarity with Palestinian demands to boycott Israeli apartheid.
Water is the heart of this story. Arad also supplies water to Mekorot, Israel’s state-owned water company. As protesters at the time pointed out:It supplies water to the illegally occupied West Bank.
Mekorot, Palestinians denied access to waterA tactic that serves as a tool to force them out of their land. Israel is simply This violence escalates The Syrian army continues to commit mass atrocities. The army systematically destroys the water supply infrastructure in the Gaza Strip and cuts off water supplies through the Mekorot pipeline.
Incentive
Half a million Arad water meters installed in homes across southern England send out silent updates on daily water usage, a reminder that this country’s water has never been pure or immoral.
Thames Water looks set to roll out mandatory smart meters across its territories by 2030 in response to water shortages.
London is so mired in the myth of exceptionalism and the stereotype of rain that it’s easy to forget that it’s the greatest city in the world. The 15 Most Water-Scarce Cities in the World.
Smart meters are marketed as a means to control individual water use, but they are also rife with injustice.
People without wealth or credit, for example those who live with large families or cannot afford to purchase water-saving technologies, may not be able to benefit from these water-saving incentives.
sharp
It costs money to buy a modern water-efficient washing machine. We are not all deprived of water in the same way.
When Steve Reed talks about “protecting our rivers, lakes and oceans,” he’s referring to the desire for sovereignty.
But by asking the question, “Whose water is our water?” we can see that water injustice crosses borders and operates in circulation and flow along the boundaries of oppression.
Every time you turn on the tap, you are momentarily exposed to water in its infinite and far-reaching cycle. Likewise, every day you encounter a water meter or smell the pungent odor of a polluted river, you get a glimpse of a broken water system.
This author
Lori Hancock is a youth worker, researcher, and organizer.
