Italy’s Public Says “No” to Water Privatization

Italy’s voting public have overturned no less than four laws by the Berlusconi government in today’s referendum. In the wake of Fukushima the public’s clear ballot against a revival of nuclear energy in Italy understandably takes up a prominent position in news headlines. The ballot is also being seen as one of a number of heavy blows Berlusconi’s fragile coalition has been dealt recently, after two serious regional defeats in Naples and Milan.

In today’s referendum several questions were to be decided upon by the public: Should politicians be given a certain immunity in legal trials? Should Italy have – at last again – its own nuclear plants? And should the public water service be run and capitalized upon by private companies? The latter question takes up a less prominent position in the perspective of foreign news coverage, but is one of great importance to many Italian families.

The law on water privatization is a part of so-called “Ronchi Decree”, named after Andrea Ronchi, minister of communitarian politics in the current Berlusconi government, which has become a law in 2009. The decree revises community service practices and envisaged to give way to a de facto privatization and capitalization on public water services by private stakeholders by guaranteeing “non-discrimination and equal treatment” to private companies who wish to participate in the public water services sector. Furthermore, public water service companies who were already listed on stock exchange were allowed to be owned by only less than a third, whereas 70% had to be in the hands of private investors.

A broad social movement subsumed in the “Italian Forum of Water Movements” consisting of 150 communities and political organizations called for a halt of broad liberalization of public services and the capitalization on something most Italians seem to see as a public good. Their campaigning work has reached a considerable amount of concerned voters: The ballots of today’s referendum are extremely articulate: 96% of those who went to vote (which were in turn 57% of the voting public) refused to accept the Ronchi Decree, the ballots against nuclear energy and legal immunity for politicians were equally high.

Article in guardian on Turkey

http://m.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/29/turkey-nuclear-hydro-power-development?cat=world&type=article

Abstract of M.A. Thesis

This paper is based on my master’s thesis (‘Resource Allocation: A Comparative Cultural Analysis of Small-Scale Irrigation Systems’). The goal of this paper is to analyse the factors (institutional, cultural, external, resource system characteristics) that lead to successful resource allocation. My findings are based on a comparative analysis of five different regions (South India, Himalayas, Central Asia, North Africa, and the Andes) in the rural South. The conceptual framework is based on New Institutional Economics (NIE), referring, in particular, to Elinor Ostrom’s Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action.

As the economic and political circumstances of small communities evolve, so too do their irrigation systems. In a best-case scenario the system remains robust in the face of change, adapting, for example, new water rights and technical innovations. However, if the irrigation system is robust but path-dependant, then the system as a whole cannot adapt to changed circumstances, and tends to collapse.

According to the concept of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), successful resource allocation is based on three criteria: social equality, ecological sustainability, and economic efficiency. My analysis shows that it is difficult to promote these three goals equally as there are certain trade-offs between them. None of the successful cases in the study achieved all three goals concomitantly.

My findings also generated the following hypotheses:

-       Local embedding and social networks matter;

-       Water management in traditional small-scale systems is ecologically and economically successful but not necessarily socially equal; on the contrary, traditional water management often relies on hierarchical structures;

-       Technical innovation and monetization offer the opportunity to break free from traditional systems, which are subject to local concepts of status;

-       Institutional arrangements are relevant to ecological sustainability, provided that the ‘categorical rights’ (de-jure) correspond to the ‘concretized rights’ (de-facto or practised).

Key terms: small-scale irrigation, rural South, resource allocation, NIE, IWRM, water management, water rights, sustainability.

water scarcity in Darjeeling (extract)

The following article is an abstract from Darjeeling Times by Bhotoo Singh Chhetri. Though written in 2006 the issues is still relevant.

Now days, it has become a common known fact to the people of Darjeeling from every walks of life that the Darjeeling Town is supplied with drinking water from twin Senchale lakes( South Lake with capacity of 13 million gallons built in 1910 & North Lake with capacity of 20 million gallons built in 1932) having its source from 26 Nos of perennial springs in the Senchal Catchments Area, constructed by Thos Kenay ; the first engineer of Darjeeling Municipality, which is five and half miles away from Darjeeling Town.

…
The days when , every house hold of the town used to get water in the morning and evening daily has become the past history of Darjeeling town. At present the idea of getting water twice a day in Darjeeling is nothing less than a fairytale.
…
During rainy season the collection of water at Senchal Catchments area becomes sufficient from 8 to 10 springs, the rest of the springs have to cut off due to limited capacity of reservoirs at Senchale lakes Besides these two lakes, another third lake with capacity of 15 million gallons was constructed by Government of west Bengal in the year 1978 at Singdhap, but due to poor quality of the reservoir and leakage, it is almost dead lake. Considering the need of the growing population with exploding geometrical ratio and the flow of tourists, it is urgently necessary to construct more additions reservoirs at Senchale area.

…

Besides the construction of additional large reservoir at Senchale area , there is also need for the construction of various sizes of subsidiary tanks in each and every village and ward as per the availability of space, if this initiative is not taken in proper time then there will be no space left unoccupied for this purpose in near future.

For the local hoteliers it has become very difficult to explain the foreign and domestic tourists about the acute shortage of water, because while coming from Siliguri to Darjeeling they see that plenty of water is going wasted in the road side drain , so they can not believe that there is real shortage of water in the town . Besides the tourists, it is also not believable for the local inhabitants too because during dry season the Municipality distributes the water through water tanker and Trucks carrying water from Darjeeling itself, the farthest source is 20 kilometers far from town i.e Rambi Khola previously ignored by the PHE Department. So it is hard to believe that the crisis is actually caused by the shortage of water.

It is obvious that one of the main problem of the water scarcity is due to the shortage of reservoir. The permanent solution of the water crisis is totally depended in the willingness and the sincerity of the State and the Central Government in the humanitarian ground because till this day the political leaders are taking it very lightly for their political benefit. During elections every time local leaders and national leaders makes it a big issue next to the statehood demand and promise to solve the problem after the elections and for this they don’t even waste any time for laying the foundation stone without any hesitation for the various water supply scheme but after the elections this scheme remains confined only to the laying of its foundation stone because no further progress takes place and the scheme does not continue any further.
…
Now, even in the rainy season people get water once in three days or four days only that also for a very limited period. But in the dry period i.e. in March, April and May water is supplied at an interval of six to thirteen / fourteen days.

All the people of Darjeeling are facing acute water crisis, ever since but nobody dares to raise their voice against the Government. Until and unless a true and sincere leader is born in Darjeeling, the water problem will not be solved because water crisis is the only easiest way to keep the young generations engaged in order to indirectly prevent them from going to schools and colleges regularly and being educated.

Water scarcity in Darjeeling

Cause for Concern

Abstract from the local page of the Times of India, Bhubaneshwar-Cuttak (march 19, 2011)

Cuttack is facing imminent water shortage due to the water supply scheme by the government that allows the Indian Oil Corporation Limited to collect water from the Mahanadi riverbed at Jobra and carry it to Paradeep through pipes.

More than a hundred 1,000-metre-long pies will be laid from Cuttack…Thousands of pipes are stacked in the company’s store yard [with the result that large part of grazing land is used to store pipes. Feeding cattle and domestic animals is becoming a problem.]

Development activist Rini Mohanty said, “Water has become so precious and it is surprising why the government is taking such a decision to siphon out water from Cuttack.”

Dilip Mallick, secretary of the movement says, “The canal is basically meant for farmers. People in the downstream are suffering in their farms and goverment does not think of their plight.”

It’s a scandal to pipe water as it is no longer accessible for local farmers! Water has a different significance than oil. Oil pipelines exist in order to transport oil, but by transporting water in pipes excludes people and is a massive threat to their livelihood.

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Aquafina by Pepsi

Kinley by Coca-Cola

Bisleri

Ad for Himalayan Water

The ad suggests purity and the eternal longing of mankind to go back to nature – by drinking water from a plastic bottle.

India is littered by plastic. Bottles, crisp’s bags, plastic straws  and much more. The traditional packaging way like  edible banana leaves, clay pots, coconuts etc. are substituted by plastic. This is nothing new. But because of the  lack of dealing with the rubbish its thrown immediately out after using the product packed in the plastic as it is considered as dirty to keep rubbish until you find a dustbin (which is also difficult because there are hardly enough dustbin). The ironic part is that throughout the country you will find signs (in English!) saying not to litter and keep it clean and green.

We went to a boat trip on chillika lake in Orissa, Asia’s biggest brackish water lake, home of the Irriwadi dolphins (we saw one!). The guide of our tour requested the people in hindi not to litter, there were even signs warning that to litter is an offense which is punished with a fine. But still some people on the boat were throwing cigarette boxes into the water just after watching the dolphin. India’s nature is beautiful, but there are dumps everywhere. It would be a great system to put up a deposit- just like the German ‘Pfand’. Poor people would have an incentive to collect the bottles and to make some money. One rupee on each bottle deposit would be enough.

 

Leckende Roehre

In Hotels und oeffentlichen Oertlichkeiten begegnen mir immer wieder aufgedrehte Wasserhaehne, welche aus Nachlaessingkeit oder Lustlosigkeit nicht zugedreht wurden. Manchmal lassen sich die Haehne nur mit grossem Kraftaufwand schliessen. In einem hotel hatte das Rohr unter dem Waschbecken ein Loch, so dass dass wenn man sich die Haende wusch, das Abwasser auf dem Boden sammelte. Unzureichende Instandhaltung von relativ einfachen Dingen lassen mich fragen, wie sieht es mit der Plege und Instandhaltung von Bewaesserungskanaelen, Rohrleitungen und Staudaemmen aus, wo es um wesentliche groessere Wassermengen geht?

NZZ: Dam project causes tensions in Central Asia

According to an article in today’s NZZOnline [german] by Almaty based German journalist Marcus Bensmann, Tajikistan’s Rogun dam project causes considerable tension in the region. It’s a very interesting piece on a medially underrepresented, but nonetheless interesting and important region. A short translated summary of Bensmanns article:

The dam project was to be built in the 1990s but came to a grinding halt when the Soviet Union fell and civil war erupted in Tajikistan. However, in 2004 the Russian Federation invested  2 billion Swiss Francs (About 1.5 billion Euro), a third of Tajikistan’s BIP, to finance the resuming of the construction works and expand the local aluminium industry.

Dams in Central Asia have had a longstanding peculiar history and do have ugly effects on both natural and political environment today. In Soviet times, two dams were responsible for the regulation of Central Asian rivers Syr Darja and Amu Darja: Toktogul in Kyrgyzstan and Nurek in Tajikistan mainly allowed for the waters to be redirected to the major cotton industries in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The excessive use of water was mainly responsible for the vanishing of the Aral Sea. The water was exchanged in a swap deal with petrol gas and oil.

This redistribution system fell apart in 1991 and former allies stopped cooperating as before. What follows sounds like classical tit-for-tat-game: The oil delivering countries expected continious unconditioned water supplies, while asking world marked prices for their crude and gas. On the other side, Kyrgystan and Tajikistan acquired the habit of releasing waters from their dams in winter time to generate electric energy. This again very untimely floods the downstream countries, where the soil becomes inundated and marshy. As a retaliation the petrol countries refuse to deliver gas and electricity to the northern neighbours, whose inhabitants end up in sitting in unheated homes, without electricity for weeks.

The Rogun dam seems to be Tajikistan’s strategy to get out of this unfortunate game. The dam would have considerable effects on the neighbouring country. Uzbekistan keenly opposed the project, Russia finally withdrew from 2004′s deal. Tajikistan is lacking international investors. The initial attempt to coerce its citizens into buying shares were stopped by the World Bank. Nevertheless, Bensmann states, Tajikistan’s government seems very determined to pursue this way out of its ressource problem. The relationships with neighbour Uzbekistan grow more and more tense. Uzbek scientists warned that another dam in the region would drain the Aral Sea for good.