Emanuela Roman Tommaso Dotti. Water: a global issue.

Water as a Common Good:the Italian case

Emanuela RomanTommaso Dotti

Water: a global issue

U.N. World Water Development Report, 2006

1 billion and 400 millions people do not have access to freshwater

1 million and 8 hundred children die every year because of sanitary problem connected to water (dysentery)

4900 children die every day of dysentery

Within 2050 48% of freshwater demand will remain

unanswered

The distribution of water in the world is not uniform (60% of water in 9 countries)

This causes migratory movements and international conflicts

Source: http://www.unwater.org/

U.N. World Water Development Report, 2006

Water resources

Source: www.wordmapper.org

Water use

Source: www.wordmapper.org

Water businessWater will become the “oil of future”

Multinational corporations are aware of this: the run for hoarding has already started

In developing countries it has the features of “plunder ” (i.e. Bolivia)

In Europe it mainly occurs as a public-private partnership

Italy – Origins of privatization

Legge Galli n.36/1994 ATO (Ambiti Territoriali Ottimali – territorial

reorganisation of public water management) possibility of privatize water management (partially or

totally)

Positive aspects: Public property of water resources Water is mainly for human use: we need to preseve it

Negative aspects: Introduction of “full recovery cost” Introduction of “return on invested capital”

Italy – Consequences of privatization Following Legge Galli integrated urban water management

was given almost everywhere to S.p.a. (stock companies): Both private and public Private law subjects with a board of directors and stakeholders Their aim is profit

Consequences of water privatization in Italy:Tariffs increase of 60% in 10 years;Job cuts;Worsening quality in service;Investment decrease of 66% in comparison with 1990/2000Lack of openness and democratic participation.

Source: Le società controllate dai maggiori comuni italiani: costi, qualità, efficienza (4° edizione) Milano, 28 gennaio 2009, Gabriele Barbaresco (Ufficio Studi Mediobanca)

“Acqua Bene Comune” movement In some parts of Italy protests arose: 3 years

after the Alternative Water Forum (Florence, 2003) the “Acqua Bene Comune” movement was born

In 2006 the first “Forum Italiano dei Movimenti per l’Acqua” took place in Rome: they drew a bill aimed at determining a new concept of public water management.

In March 2007 started the collection of signatures for the Citizens’ Initiative Bill: “Principles for the protection, public governance and management of water and regulations for de-privatization of water management”

Proposta di Legge d’Iniziativa Popolare: “Principi per la tutela, il governo e la gestione pubblica delle acque e disposizioni per la ripubblicizzazione del Servizio Idrico”)

The Citizens’ Initiative Bill in 10 points1. Water is a Common Good and a universal right.

Availability and access to fresh water are fundamental human rights;

2. Water is a limited resource to be protected as essential for human life and future genarations;

3. Each territorial district should define a water management plan to preserve the resource and its quality;

4. Integrated urban water management is a public service with no economic relevance , out of trade and market logics and oriented to social and environmental purposes;

5. Integrated urban water management should be managed exclusively by public law bodies;

The Citizens’ Initiative Bill in 10 points

6. Within a well-defined period of time every private, public-private and S.p.a. management should be ended ;

7. The minimum daily subsitance water amount of 50 liters per person should be guaranteed for free;

8. Water management workers and local communities take active part in the main decisions concerning urban water management;

9. Integrated urban water management is financed through the reduction of militar expenditures and of tax evasion and through environmental taxes;

10. A national fund finances access to fresh water projects in the Global South.

The Citizens’ Initiative Bill current situation

However the Italian parliament has refused to discuss the Citizens' Initiative Bill, and thus far the Citizens' Initiative Bill lies in the drawers of Montecitorio.

Rodotà CommissionJune 2007: establishment of the Commission

on Public Goods (ministry of Justice decree, Prodi Government) headed by Stefano Rodotà (members: Ugo Mattei, Edoardo Reviglio, Alberto Lucarelli, Luca Nivarra…)Aim: drawing a law to reform the Civil Code

regulations concerning public goods (which dated back to 1942)

February 2008: the Rodotà Commission Bill was ready:3 ownership forms:

Common property Public property Private property

Rodotà CommissionIntroduction and definition of the legal

category of the Commons: Defined as goods functional to the exercise of

fundamental rights and to a free development of the human being

A list of examples is provided

Introduction and definition of 3 new typologies of public goods: Necessarily public ownership goods Social public goods Interest-bearing public goods

Source: U. Mattei, A. Gallarati, Economia politica del diritto civile, Giappichelli, Torino, 2009

Rodotà Commission Bill current situationAfter the Prodi government fell, the new

Berlusconi government refused to discuss Rodotà Commision Bill in Parliament. Until now it is lying in the drawers of Montecitorio as the Citizens’ Initiative Bill .

Decreto Ronchi: forced privatization19 November 2009: Italian parliament approved

Decreto Ronchi (legge n. 166/2009) which forced the privatization of water management and other essential public services.

Under Decreto Ronchi (see art. 15) the whole public services management has to be put on the financial market, thus subjecting the Commons to the neoliberal rules of profit and competition.

Citizens are completely excluded from the common and public goods management: only private corporations, listed on the stock exchange, are allowed to purchase control of the water management system.

Source: http://www.parlamento.it/parlam/leggi/09166l.htm

Fighting Decreto Ronchi“Acqua Bene Comune” movement started

immediately another national campaign to hold a referendum to abolish Decreto Ronchi

1.400.000 signatures were collected in the spring of 2010 (between April and July) to support the citizens’ referendum request

The Italian Constitutional Court approved 2 of the 3 referendum questions prepared by the movement and declared that a referendum would have taken place on July 12th and 13th 2011

Referendum questionsThe first referendum question concerns

whether water management privatization should stop and whether Decreto Ronchi should be abolished.

The second referendum question concerns whether water should be managed without any profit and whether the return on invested capital should be abolished.

Referendum questions

Electoral campaignThroughout Italy an electoral campaign

started to promote the referendum:Lead and financed only by citizens without

funding from partiesIn every single city and village a referendum

committee was created by citizensMainstream media boycotted the campaign.

Internet was the most relevant mean to promote referendum and share information

To reach every voter a door to door action was carried out (flash mob, demonstration, conferences and leaflet)

We are citizens, free women and men that for years have been fighting for public, participatory and democratic water management. With engagement, work and passion we have defended water from speculations, market and private interests. In all our territories local committees were born, forming a living network active throughout the country. This is the water people: inclusive, lively, proactive. We are fighting against the logic of the market, which wants to regulate every moment of our lives. We pretend to decide on water: we want to remove water from markets and profits from water, we want to give the management of this common good back to the communities. We want this to guarantee free access to water for everybody. To protect it as a collective common good. To preserve it for future generations.

You write water, you read democracy

The referendum victoryMore then 65% of Italians went to the

polling station (more than 27 millions people)

95% of voters chose to vote “yes” against the privatization of water

It was 16 years that the quorum was not reached

Source: http://elezioni.interno.it/

Referendum enforcementNational level

Despite the referendum unequivocal victory, in August 2011 our government passed a financial bill (decree n. 138/2011) in an effort to re-open the way to the privatization of public services;

We still have two bills lying in Parliament;

Italian Constitution provides the legal basis for a specific law concerning the Commons (art. 41 and art. 43).

Local and municipal level

To enforce the second referendum question, citizens are lobbying on majors and ATO to obtain the adjustement of the water bill consequently to the abolition of the return on invested capital

In some Regions committees are promoting a regulation to introduce the legal concept of the Commons in the Statuto Regionale (i.e. Veneto)

In many municipalities committees are lobbying on the city council to increase the citizens’ participation in urban water management (i.e. Marostica)

Referendum enforcement

Napoli calls ParisAntonio De Magistris, the new major of

Napoli, elected in June 2011, appointed Prof. Alberto Lucarelli as Alderman for the Commons

7 July 2011: the city council passed a deliberation which introduced in Statuto Comunale an article to recognise the legal concept of the Commons

23 Semptember 2011: the city council changed Arin S.p.a. into A.B.C. Napoli: a «special company» of public law, with no economic relevance. For the first time citizens and committees are officially included in decision-making processes of urban water management

… and so the citizens’ mobilisation in Italy is still

going on!

And remember…