This is exactly what Uganda needs, especially on electricity and water too. Electricity was privatized and so was the water systems. Privatization is not bad as long as the people who buy these companies are Ugandans who can get things going at affordable prices. I'm sick and tired of seeing foreigners buying the very basic companies in our country. Ugandans need to lead the Ugandan economy into the next century.
Mitayo Potosi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Mitayo Potosi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
In South Africa, the Poor Could Win the Water Battle
By Fabienne Pompey
Le Monde FR
Tuesday 24 February 2004
South African anti-privatization movements are poised to win the water
battle. Ever since the government adopted the World Bank-imposed "total cost
recovery" principle, the cost of water has become inaccessible for the
poorest sectors of the population. Private companies, which had rushed into
these new markets, begin to become disillusioned.
In order to forestall uprisings in the townships� the black ghettos�,
the Apartheid government determined to supply water for practically free,
charging a modest fixed sum to each home. After 1994, the municipal services
applied the "World Bank doctrine" and imposed water payments at their
"correct price".
In rural areas, the vast majority of blacks had no access to running
water. The state undertook to make good on this delay. However, once
households were connected, residents found themselves unable to pay.
According to the municipal employees' union, very much in the forefront of
the anti-privatization battle, prices went up by as much as 400%. The result
is that 10 million water supply cuts have been effected since 1994.
The townships began to rebel. When the Nelspruit commune, in
Mpumalanga, signed a thirty-year contract with the British company Bi-Water,
tens of thousands of households organized a boycott. The revolt cost
millions of rands in unpaid bills to Bi-Water, which is now demanding state
support to continue its operations.
FREE MINIMUM SERVICE
The French company, Suez, which obtained a contract for "greater
Johannesburg", is also incurring the anger of the poorest people. Unpaid
bills accumulate and the revolt intensifies. The slogan "Destroy the meter,
enjoy th e water", launched by the Anti-privatization Forum (APF), which
regroups dozens of neighborhood organizations, is realizing a growing
success.
Confronted with insurrection, the government has established a free
minimum service. Since 2001, poor households enjoy 6,000 free liters of
water a month. That's not enough for most township households, where up to
twenty people may be piled in together. "Half the people in these
neighborhoods are unemployed, how do you expect them to manage?" asks Dale
MacKinley, APF spokesperson.
"The companies have accepted the principle of the first 6,000 liters
free, but make up the cost on the next cubic meters. That's how we get
paradoxes: the cubic liter is more expensive in Soweto �Johannesburg's
poorest neighborhood� than in the upscale neighborhoods in the north of the
city," explains Lance Veotte, who's responsible for water questions at the
municipal employees' union.
To c ombat unpaid bills, Suez has experimented with a system of prepaid
meters. "Residents have taken it very badly," opines Dale MacKinley. The
company, which is trying to extend the system into the huge Soweto Township,
is encountering serious resistance.
During the years 1997-1998, all the big French companies had prosperous
businesses in South Africa. Now they tend to scale back. "In July 2003, one
of them even repatriated some salespeople," explains a French economist
based in South Africa. "The companies had to confront popular resistance to
privatization. With regard to water, the public sector-private sector
partnership didn't work well," he adds under cover of anonymity.
With general elections looming, the government seems ready to moderate
its privatization ambitions, at least provisionally. "The government has not
abandoned the idea, but it is more cautious," is Lance Veotte's analysis.
"Access to potable water is a h uman right. We'll continue to fight so that
water doesn't become a consumer good like any other," he promises.
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Translation: Truthout French language correspondent Leslie Thatcher.
Mitayo Potosi
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