Anne LeStrat is a politician from those who are missing from the Greek reality. Besides the flagship remunicipalization of water services in Paris, to the despair of the two largest French private water companies, who have lost hundreds of millions of euro, Ann Le Strat also acts as Chairman of the Agency Aqua Publica Europea and continues to fight for the public nature of water outside french border. We had the honor to talk to her about the problems we face in Greece with the imposed privatization of public water services during our visit to Paris last year and her interest was profound as shown now by the acceptance of the invitation to visit Greece for the matter. It is important for the local governments to understand the role they can play in impending privatization of services and the possibility that arises for them to collaborate with major European cities such as Paris and Berlin , who, having experienced the negative effects of privatization and breach of promises by private providers – behavior that led to inadequate maintenance of networks, excessive prices and poor quality of services -, remunicipalized water services to the satisfaction of citizens. If there is a positive aspect to our globalized life, this is the ability to be informed about the wrong policies before applying them . Let’s make the visit of the deputy mayor an occasion for reflection and reassessment for all municipalities of Attica and Thessaloniki but also the municipalities of the province where sooner or later the privatization directly or indirectly will also knock on their door. It is their responsibility to resist to the ” indifference ”  shown by the government on the European dimension of the issue of water and its deafeningly “silent” decision to proceed with the privatization, a decision diametrically opposed to the latest developments at EU level and European municipalities. Besides, the municipal elections are not far away. Let us remember and support mayors that already took a stand against the privatization of our water and let us hope that such standings will soon multiply for everybody’s sake.

Two important events against the privatization of water in Greece are being organized in Athens and Thessaloniki by initiative of Nicos Poulantzas Institute. More specifically:

WATER IS A COMMON GOOD: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Saturday 19 October, 7:00 p.m., VEA Hall (Akadimias 18, Athens)

Speaker

Αnne Le Strat, deputy mayor of Paris, president of Eau de Paris

Interventions by the citizens’ initiative Save Greek Water (www.savegreekwater.gr) and representatives of collectivities of employees of the water company of Athens (EYDAP)

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 In cooperation with the citizens’ movement «SOSte Το Nero» (“Save the water”, www.sostetonero.blogspot.gr)

Monday 21 October, 7:00 pm, City Hall of Thessaloniki

Speakers

Αnne Le Strat, deputy mayor of Paris, president of Eau de Paris

Osman Özgüven, mayor of Dikilí, Turkey

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The aim of these public debates is, by presenting specific international experiences (Paris and Dikili), to broaden the discussion and documentation about a progressive, socially just and ecologically aware management of water under public control, rejecting the myths put forward by the supporters of privatization. After all, nowadays there are actual, dynamically growing and accessible relative experiences around the world from which social movements can benefit.

Anne Le Strat, deputy mayor of Paris, has been an important figure of the struggle for the remunicipalization of the French capital’s water company (which had been privatized in 1985). She will present the negative results of 25 years of privatization and also Eau de Paris, the new water company that functions under municipal control, its structure and the effort to increase accountability by the participation of employees and citizens.

Osman Ozgkiouven is the mayor of Dikili, Turkey, responsible for restructuring his city’s water company and for implementing a pricing system that ensures the access of all citizens to the most important common good (among other things, ten cubic meters of water per month are offered free of charge to residents with low incomes). Socially responsible practices have also been implemented in other sectors (health care at low cost, free public transport and bread at cost price). Although the mayor has been prosecuted due to his policies, he has managed to gain widespread public support, proving that the barriers put by the system can be overcome when there is a strong political will.

By Martin Pigeon

“A business of real public importance can only be carried on advantageously upon so large a scale as to render the liberty of competition almost illusory […] It is much better to treat it at once as a public function.” – J.S. Mill, 1872

Almost a year has now passed since Remunicipalisation: Putting Water Back Into Public Hands was first released. This book examined the ongoing trend of water “remunicipalisation” – how cities are taking back control of their water systems. It is exciting to give it a second life today, in the form of a Spanish book, as well as through a short animation film.

Researching and writing this book was intense: five urban water systems were studied, one per continent, with radical geographical, political and cultural differences among them.

As I looked at water struggles all over the world, more and more it felt as if I were observing the circulation of life’s blood. The cities had a lot in common: their water systems were technology-intensive, comparably standardized, costly, vital… And for at least these two last reasons they had been privatized. Many investors love monopolies, and urban water networks are natural monopolies on a lifeline resource. However, after a period of significant expansion in private water management globally (1980-2000), the trend was reversing.

Lessons from remunicipalisation

As campaigners against water privatization, we encourage public water management: we welcome this new trend, but to what extent is it good news? Our research found that:

• remunicipalisation can save money for public budgets, and sometimes a lot such as in Paris where the city saved enough to reduce water tariffs by 8% without endangering investments and financial stability
• it always allows for more transparency
• it can increase the system’s efficiency (performing to best technical capacity as opposed to just complying with legal standards)
• it often puts extension of coverage and equal access back on the agenda[1]

In short, remunicipalisation works!

But other findings are equally interesting. The most striking one perhaps is that the decision to remunicipalize is usually taken mainly on financial and technical grounds. Pro-public water political campaigning does help, but the mere fact that private management fails to run systems in a technically sound and politically acceptable way can be enough to lead to remunicipalisation. In short, privatization is its own worst enemy.

Ongoing struggles

The remunicipalisation wave continues. Veolia just lost one of its oldest contracts in France in the city of Rennes. A city spokesperson explained: “There’s a contradiction between the council’s aim to reduce water consumption and that of the operator whose interest is to see it increase.”

The water companies’ business model for municipal contracts is outdated, at least in the EU. Consumption slowly but steadily decreased over the past 20 years, limiting revenue while costs skyrocketed, and the resulting hike in water tariffs has generated political discontent and high scrutiny. Cities that don’t remunicipalize renegotiate their contracts fiercely: it is common for water multinationals to give 30% rebates these days to keep their contracts, hoping they can still recoup their costs later.

They are now trying to restructure their businesses, with two major options:

1. Veolia seems to focus more on traditional engineering works and services for public and private clients, as well as new ones such as the mining and oil industry (fracking requires enormous amounts of water and involves high clean-up costs).
2. Suez seems to try to capture the very management of the resource and the politics of water through “integrated water governance” contracts, trying to sell cities “water health contracts” and co-opting the language of the progressive water world.

One remark: the European Commission seems to completely ignore all of the above. It has never promoted water privatization as enthusiastically as today, imposing this failed model on Greece, Portugal and everywhere it’s given the chance. It has for the first time included water in Internal Market legislation on concession contracts, causing an uproar – and intense corporate lobbying – in Brussels these days. Indeed, “the Commission believes that the privatisation of public utilities, including water supply firms, can deliver benefits to the society when carefully made.”(EC, DG ECFIN 2012)

Making ‘public’ work

Public ownership is a pre-requisite but never a guarantee for better performance. “Public” must go hand in hand with democratization of the service. Only that way can challenges of the water sector be tackled in a sustainable way:

How can we finance costly infrastructure without giving control to corporations or banks?

How can water management be integrated in urban and land planning, in forestry and agriculture policies to improve resilience, resource quality and adapt to climate change?

How to fight other forms of privatization such as the end-of-pipe technological approach to pollution, or useless and dangerous ideas such as water rights markets?

How to translate these technical issues into political issues that all can understand and contribute to?

Remunicipalisation advances these debates by raising water issues on the political agenda and is a golden opportunity to try and solve them.

Martin Pigeon is a researcher and campaigner with Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO). CEO is a research and campaign group working to expose and challenge the privileged access and influence enjoyed by corporations and their lobby groups in EU policy making.

The lecture – discussion on the 11th of December, with the same speakers, is being organized by the Universite populaire de l’ eau et du developpement durable, at Cinema Le Luxy, Ivry-sur-Seine, 77 Avenue Georges Gosnat, where Ana Dimitrescu’s documentary “ Khaos, Les visages humains de la crise grecque” will be shown. (Here you can find the event’s brochure).

Press Release

“The European Commission launches the water companies privatization:

Greece is the first country affected”

The organizations Coordination Eau Ile-de-France and Fondation Danielle Mitterrand – France Libertés are organizing a press conference on Wednesday 12th of December at 09.00 am at the France Libertés institute premises in Paris (22, reu de Milan, 75009 Paris) where the invited speakers are Mrs Maria Kanellopoulou, representative of Save Greek Water and Gabriella Zanzanaini, Manager of the European Affairs in the Food and Water Europe.

The European Commission has clearly admitted in a letter addressed to the European Water Movement organizations and activists  that they are imposing the water companies privatization as one of the conditionalities of the bailout. As we have already pointed out a few weeks ago, this attitude lacks of the necessary legitimacy.

For this reason, citizen initiatives from all over Europe have decided to act in groups by accusing E.C. for violations of key Articles of the E.U. treaty which provisions neutrality of the EU (1) at issues regarding  water companies ownership and management status.

The validity of E.C. decision is being diminished by the fact that it is opposed to the general trend which is prevailing not only in Europe but all over the world. Indeed, thanks to the citizens pressure, the restitution of the water companies to public ownership is the prevailing trend with a culminating activity to be the exemplary referendum in Italy in 2011 in favor of the water net nationalization.

Troika’s rescue plan for Greece provides a long list of public companies and institutes that have to be sold to bidders and in which are included two of the most important municipal (savegreekwater corrector’s note: the companies are s.a. and the state owns the majority of stocks) water companies of Greece : EYATH (Water and Sanitation Company of Thessalonica) and EYDAP (Water and Sanitation Company of the Capital city). These two companies are in great danger of a total privatization really soon.

Save Greek Water Initiative was founded by Greek citizens in July 2012, aiming at informing the public opinion and at offering the chance to the Greek population to express their opinion by signing a petition against the water companies privatizations.

We have to understand and strengthen Greek citizens to this fight so that the opinion that public goods and especially water belong to every single citizen finds its rightful place during this period of crisis and austerity. Water is a source of life and not of profit!

At the Press Conference which will take place in December 12th, Mrs Maria Kanellopoulou will speak for the situation in Greece and the citizens opposition to the imposed privatization. Mrs Gabriella Zanzanaini will present the initiatives of the society groups and activists towards European Commission, which is now obliged to explain its lack of neutrality.

(1) E.U.’s neutrality against public or private water companies ownership and management status is described in article 345 of the TFEU and in Article 171 of the regulation 2006/123/EC regarding each country’s internal market services.