Özlem Eylem Tuncaelli, the president of the Istanbul branch of the Chamber of Environmental Engineers, has said, "One of our basic rights is to receive healthy and safe water supplies. The people must be able to get water without economic considerations. Water must be cleaned without looking at the income of the users."

Water privatisation planned

In a news item by Gülcin Üstün of the "Milliyet" newspaper yesterday (31 July), it is said that the government is planning to privatise the water sector in order to solve the water crisis. The first step would be to "sell the use of streams and lakes to the private sector for 49 years." The privatisation of potable water is also on the agenda.

In fact, these plans are not new. It has been a long-standing capitalist strategy to hand water and water treatment over to transnational companies in order to solve structural crises. The result: first of all a violation of the right to life for the poor.

Children die, some countries fight back

Internationally, 3,800 children die every day because of illnesses that are related to the lack of healthy water and water treatment plants.

However, there are also those who struggle and win. In Bolivia, for instance, the people have frightened away the big companies who have taken over the water, they have overturned the government who allowed this, and then driven away the companies.

In South Africa, the increasingly impoverished people have organised and are struggling for the right to water. They say that "privatization is the greatest discrimination".

Right to water is a human right

Last month the Forum for the People's Rights assembled in Ankara, Turkey's capital, and listed its three basic demands regarding the right to water:

1. The right to water is an unalienable human right.

2. Water sources must remain public property.

3. The amount of clean water necessary for a humane life must be distributed without charge.

According to a UN report, 1.1 billion people do not have access to clean water, and 2.6 billion people lack the infrastructure for water treatment. Water companies have taken over 20 percent of the worlds reserves of potable water.

Water makes money

Tuncaelli pointed out that the market of water supplies was worth one trillion dollars world-wide.

In 2002, water-giants Suez, Vivendi and RWE had a total revenue of 160 billion dollars, and a growth rate of 10 percent.

In 2001, the biggest water companies, their parent companies, and their yearly water sales in Euros were as follows:

Ondeo (Suez): 10.088

Vivendi Water (Vivendi Universal): 13.640

Thames (RWE): 27.46

SAUR (Bouygues): 2.494

Anglian (AWG): 936

Cascal (Nuon): 181

IWL (Bechtel): 100

Tuncaelli emphasised that what was of interest was not the size of the markets, but the easy and safe access to water. "Just as water belongs to the public, water supplies are also a public service and need to remain public. We remind the government that water belongs to us, and that we should not have to pay the bill for their mismanagement of what belongs to us." (TK/AG)