Pt

VIDHI GUPTA

X -A

B114084140054

In the 1990s Berlin was governed by a coalition of Social Democrats (SPD) and Christian Democrats (CDU). Water privatization was decided by a small group of key actors. The opposition parties, the party base of the SPD and the citizens were completely sidelined. Only the media provided information about the decisions that concerned all the inhabitants of the city.

• As is usual in privatization projects, decision-making was neither public nor transparent, and all public influence was considered as potentially detrimental. The privatization contract between the city and the water companies was not disclosed and only a very restricted number of politicians had access to it.

WATER PRIVATIZATION

Members of Germany's conservative parties arrive for preliminary coalition with the Social Democratic Party at the Parliamentary Society in Berlin, Oct. 14, 2013.

Negotiations to end the largest municipal P3 in Germany were finally concluded on September 10 with a deal by the Berlin government to spend €650 million (C$893 million) to buy back shares of the Berlin Water Company that have been in the hands of water giant Veolia since a P3 deal was signed in 1999. A press release (translated from German) from the Berlin Water Table celebrated the end of the P3 by saying, "With the repurchase of shares of the Veolia Water Company, the Senate ended a nearly 14 year old partial privatization. This has left the people of Berlin, the highest water rates in the major German cities as well as a mountain of problems.

The dominant argument is that the state takes too long to provide the necessary services which are deemed ineffective.

Success and campaign 2

In response to the negative consequences of water privatization popular resistance increased. A citizens’ initiative was born: “No more secret contracts – we want our water back”. It proposes a law on the full disclosure of the agreement on the partial privatization of the Berlin Water Works (Berliner Wasserwerke) in 1999. On 6 October 2009 the Court ruled that the citizens’ initiative was valid. Now it was the parliament’s turn to take a position, and it rejected the initiative. Those in power had tried everything to stop the initiative: first rejection, then preemption, and finally silence instead of a campaign, hoping that not enough people would go to vote. A great victory for the organisers of the citizens’ initiative which had very limited financial resources and felt that the referendum campaign had not been fair.

Distribution of flyers informing water privatization

Protest place

Banners Campaign 1

The consequences of water privatization were quite contrary to what was promised: the price of water rose, additional investments into water quality were suspended for commercial reasons, jobs were lost and tax money was used to secure the guaranteed profits of the private investors et cetera. Water privatization did not resolve Berlin’s financial deficits.

With per capita availability of water depleting at a faster pace, the government today approved a proposal to declare 2013 as Water Conservation Year under which awareness programmes will be launched for conservation of the scarce natural resource. Auto MNCs in India have been focussing on water conservation as part of its outreach and community initiatives in India. Hyundai Motor India has been working on water harvesting and recycling and now Ford India has its initiative in Sanand, Gujarat. Participants at a workshop on water conservation on Wednesday called for utilizing technology to the hilt to address water shortages. The Government of A.P has already initiated a massive program of creation of irrigation infrastructure.