Don't make Delhi another Bolivia

Profiteering on water can be criminal

Water is a national resource which cannot be anybody's property, to be supplied at a profit. It is a necessity and the government has a basic duty to reach clean water to every household in the country.

But the Chief Minister of Delhi Mrs Shiela Dikshit has been making repeated attempts to privatise water since the year 2000. The multi-national company Price Water-House Coopers (PwC) was appointed at the insistence of the World Bank to prepare the blueprint. The move was shelved, at least in public gaze, when the appointment of PwC was challenged by NGOs. The NGOs demanded the details of the norms under which PwC had been selected for the task.

A few days ago, Mrs Dikshit announced that her government was going ahead with the privatisation plan. Except a few select VIP homes, water is not available in Delhi 24X7. The poor in Delhi make do with a couple of buckets of water. Despite having one of the perennial rivers Yamuna running through the city, it is parched for water. The river is a shade better than a stinking nala in Delhi.

The government's arguments for privatising water are that it would lead to plugging the leaks and managing wastage and eventually ensure better supply.  The  government gave exactly the same arguments in the case of privatisation of electricity. And see the result. Delhiites are being held to ransom by the two major power companies, one controlled by the Tatas and the other by Reliance. The tariff is being hiked without rhyme or reason and the bills have gone up by 4-5 times since privatisation. And yet, these companies are claiming to be in the red and are seeking either subsidy or hike in tariff. The Chief Minister has been consistently standing by the private players, supporting their cause and pleading their case with the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC).  One of the biggest victims of privatisation, next to the individual consumer, has been street lighting.

Along the lines of DERC a Delhi Water Regulatory Commission has been created by the Delhi government.  As a test case, the government plans to privatise water supply to the city's Malviya Nagar, Vasant Vihar and Nangloi localities. Depending on the success of this, supply to the rest of the city will be privatized in phases.

The World Bank had pushed a small South American nation Bolivia in 2000.  Aguas del Tunari, a private company owned by London-based MNC International Water Ltd. was handed over the water control.  The water bills skyrocketed. In several cases, half the income of the family went into water bills. Within weeks riots for water rights broke out resulted in death and injury. Finally the government broke the contract. Shiela Dikshit would do well to remember the story. One of the reasons that has emboldened the government decision is the absence of strong political opposition.

Under the UPA, government jobs are being outsourced and privatisation has become the order of the day. Increasingly political responsibility is being replaced with corporate profitability.   

Now, check the international scene in water privatisation. Only about two per cent of the urban population in the world are served by private water companies, mainly in England and Wales. Another six per cent of the world population get water service thorough privately managed but public owned companies. If Shiela Dikshit had her way, Delhi would join this miserable lot.

Water is a precious natural resource on which no company, state or individual can hold rights. By privatising water, the government would be handing over this untenable right to corporate players who work only for profit. The government can work out any number of measures to correct water situation. Plugging leakages by relaying pipes, stopping pilferage by reaching water to all sections of society and fixing working metres. Most of the metres installed in Delhi homes and factories are faulty and only consolidated bills are paid. 

Chennai has a law that makes it mandatory for buildings to have water harvesting systems to get clearance. In Delhi, most water harvesting systems are only on paper. Hardly any of them have ducts and storage. These are administrative initiatives the government should take that can improve the groundwater table.  Civilians can be recruited as voluntary water inspectors to stop wastage of water. Stricter norms and fines can be implemented. For instance, in Chandigarh, anyone cleaning the car or the courtyard with water flowing from pipe is fined Rs 500. The government here would not think or implement such ideas because the biggest water guzzlers and wasters are the government bungalows and its occupants.

Water privatisation comes as yet another move by the Shiela Dikshit government to ram decisions down the throats of residents — replacing cable network with DTH, the building of the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) corridor despite stiff public resistance, the privatisation of electricity and    now water.  But there is a marked difference between the previous decisions and this one. Water is a necessity for living. If that is going to be affected, people would react and react violently. Let not Delhi become another Bolivia.(21-11-2011, http://organiser.org)