prices. Gelderen The South African Municipal Workers (Samwu), has condemned tac privansation terised supplies in Johannesburg by of the world's ORC multinational companies, the French-owned Suezmargin This privatisation took place when the residents of Alexandra, were being forcibly removed from their homes, adjoining the Jukskei river, to areas where there are no services. This is not what they expected when they voted in the recent local elections, when they were promised clean water. The company's only response to the threat of cholera in Alexandra, was to cal toilets in the area. They showed evidence thạt they would install even basic taps even though when they tracted contract they had promised to "improve services rendered"
Cus tomers.
The track record of Suez- years Lyonnaise so tanans They have drastically 30%. increased water charges in every city where they operare in a partnership' between Beaufort, the city and the company. in to investigate excessive WSSA, was that a In a preliminary secrecy clausc Das report, they have come to the been built into the COntract trative, legal and financial ing any member of "charac- the public getting a Dy an aoscace Де перо estimates that approval of the company's true profit company the officie repera contained has been developed In Santiago, Chile, water exclusively suppsy was taxch 00010! Suez-Lyonnaise 1999. and shall not be dis4 out of 7 closed to third pardirectors to the board, giving ties without them a guaranteed manage written approval of ment control, ing only 42% of the shares. The privatisation of water, like that of The state guarantees them a profit margin of 33%. so tiny olice sor In Grenoble, France, a for- Third World, genmer mavor and a senior exec utive of Lyonnaise-des-Eaux erally takes (now Suez Lyonnaise), have the World Bank. and giving bribes to award the water contract countries, Rostock, in Germany conout its water and ditions for from the bank. owned 50% by • Lyonnaise- In Benin. de-Haux) for 25 years. Two after privatisation, water charges were increased must be by 6tre and scwake icycis by In South Africa itself there Corner exampics of waick privatisation experience in Fort the Eastern place International Cape, with Suez-Lyonaisse's substatary, PICYCHE CAPRICE document the place diktat of inappropriately In more than 12 African Poverty Reduction water privatisa- Growth Facility (PRGF)! More than 5 million getting loans ple, most of them children lie every year as a result of Tanzania, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, and ing unclean water. In Ghana only 36 per cent of the rural completed by the population end of this year in order for afe water and governments to qualify for In poor areas of the capital, IMF programme Accra, families The irony is that this is takbuckets of Monetary ment that should rise regularly so that Bangladesh has too much of the wrong kind of water: but fricatisation just makes matters toorse named the company water can make a "reason able profit". peo- South Africa today, Coolde approaching 70,000. In the alone Cape Town and Johannesburg. thousands of people have access to per cent water they could not afford to bus Even workers with secure are paying full time jobs are CHOOSE In food, electricity and water. there is an agree- This is why it is an outrage water prices Water Day, March delivering United Nations chose the theme "Water and Health", bur failed to hishlicht any of This job was left to the activists. In Auckland, New Zealand in both protestors certainly took to the streets highlighting the of families that been disconnected since water privatisation in that country SAMWU called for the day being to be declared a day of between mourning for the millions result of water poverty and World infected supply. 22, the this sense, one of the most notable and good relations among the Bangladeshis, Indians and Pakistanis. who were not the slightest bit interested in whether or not their respec. Uve sovernments were on sood terms, but only that they were determined to get along well with each other. Although it has now shifted to a new over. The main task in the immediate future is to maintain pressure on the governmens to crsure that it keeps to the agreement. However, whatever the outcome, porters have made a lasting impression on society at large and changed the way the immigration issue wit be approached from now on. Barcelona, 19 March 2001