Waiting in the wings: Privatisation of your water
Warwick Taylor of the Wellington Residents’ Coalition is concerned Wellington water is heading towards privatisation.
“The government’s land and water group is slowly working its way around [the country]. It’s not a public exercise at all,” says Greater Wellington Regional Councillor Chris Laidlaw.
Residents and advocacy groups in Wellington are extremely concerned that government amendments could take water out of public hands.
Proposed changes include extending private sector contracts from 15 to 35 years, allowing water infrastructure to be owned by a “non-council party”, and removal of the clause that requires councils to “retain control over all matters relating to the management of water services”.
Parliament was to have the first reading of these amendments on Thursday April 29, in a bill that includes recommendations on Removing Barriers to Water Infrastructure Developments in the Local Government Act 2002. These amendments could dramatically change the way water is managed.
“It has a fairly ominous sound to it. The mystery is that there is no coherent public debate surrounding water,” says Laidlaw.
The Wellington Residents’ Coalition focused on the issue at their AGM this month. At the meeting, Right to Water spokesperson Maria McMillan discussed the proposed changes.
“The [Wellington City] Council will be divested of the power to control water. The change takes a human right and gives control of it to the market. We will be beholden to private companies,” says McMillan.
The government has already given support to these changes at cabinet level, and the next step is bringing them into law, she says.
“International experience shows privatisation increases costs and leaves the [water] company less accountable for its actions, both environmentally and to rate payers.”
McMillan is concerned that national legislation is progressing in parallel with inaccurate local government claims around excessive water use that arose last year.
Warwick Taylor of Wellington Residents’ Coalition says, “Water is protected under law, but they are seeking to change that. Why not just do away with democracy altogether if it’s cheaper.”
GWRC councillor Sally Baber says removing council control of the water supply goes against human rights and is being approached in a manner similar to the deregulation of the electricity market.
At the moment council controlled organisation Capacity currently manages water, stormwater, and wastewater services in Wellington, and stated its desire last year to manage bulk water for the region.
A protest on the issue, run by The Wellington Residents’ Coalition, 11am, Manners Mall, May 1.
Jamie Melbourne-Hayward.
Have Your Say
4 Comments
Smith at 3:50 p.m. on 29 April said
An issue of importance to everyone, water will become such a world issue in the future, and we need to know where we stand on it. Look what the privatisation did to our trains! And now they want water... how can Hide survive?
Colin Smith at 6:06 p.m. on 30 April said
The public's right to keep indispensable services out of private business' hands is under under attack again. Fresh water is becoming more scarce and more valuable. Private ownership of this essential commodity would just give big business all the money they want—supplied by us, the public.
Megan McCarthy at 8:51 p.m. on 4 May said
This is as outragious as it gets. A National government is beyond redemption should this be passed. Why not just sell the air we breathe while we are at it???
Liesma Vasbenter at 12:25 p.m. on 10 May said
Privatisation of water is neither a sustainable model nor a way to rejuvenate community water systems. Research by "Food and Water Watch" concluded that privatisation is "expensive and irresponsible" offers no protection for water systems and is unable to equitably distribute water to everyone at a reasonable cost. Vandana Shiva calls water privatisation "ecological terrorism". Water belongs to everyone, is part of the commons essential to life and hence it should be provided as a public service and not for profit. Inevitably, in corporate hands this element essential to all life would be available only to those who could afford it. The recent law change increasing the number of public utilities which may be privatised certainly has the potential, wrt our water resources, of remoing restraint from the heartless! (to re-phrase Martin Luther King).