Sunday, October 21, 2012

Karnataka is a terrible way of solving the water crisis

The proposed privatisation of water supply in Karnataka is a terrible way of solving the water crisis. B&E explains why

At this juncture, including the Urban Development Minister Suresh Kumar and all top officials of the department are saying, “The private company will build, operate and maintain the project. Where as government will fix the tariff and there will be a regulatory authority to monitor”. They are giving assurances galore but there are still numerous doubts about the project. “We don’t want 24*7 water supplies from a private agency. Today government is giving assurance. But, how can we expect a private organisation taking social responsibility without profit?” asks a veteran journalist and resident of Hubli, M. Madan Mohan.

Privatisation of water supply is not a new phenomenon in the world. The ghost of Chochabamba is still haunting Bolivia and the world. During 2000, the Bolivian government handed over its water supply system to the subsidiary of corporate giant Bechtel Corporation, Agus del Tunari. As soon as Agus del Tunari took control of the system, water charges shot up. Within a month, all hell broke loose and people started protesting. Within a week, a state of emergency was declared in Chochabamba city. The Army was rushed to the city. But the civil unrest continued and at the end, the Bolivian government terminated the contract with Agus del Tunari and state again took over. On the basis of BOT (build, operate & transfer), few more water privatisation attempts were made in Vietnam, China and Malaysia. But in almost all the cases projects have either been abandoned or are in a mess.

Four years back even in New Delhi, the government tried for water privatisation. A French company Ondeo Degremont was handed over a project to design, build and operate the Sonia Vihar water treatment plant. That Rs.200 crore project was shelved after a strong protest by the public. Is that a solution for the growing water scarcity? Even today National Capital is reeling under water stress. Delhi Jal Board (DJB) is responsible for providing water to more than 1.6 crore population of the capital state. Daily demand in Delhi is 1,150 MGD (million gallons daily), where as DJB has a capacity of supplying 690 MGD. 100 MGD water comes from tube wells. Remaining 360 MGD is always a shortage. If the influx of the population continues in the same manner, Delhi will require 1,380 MGD of water every day by 2020. Will privatisation help to solve this problem? “No” says Kuljit Singh Chahal, State General Secretary, Swadeshi Jagaran Manch. Six years back Kuljit was one of the persons who strongly protested against the privatisation of water in Delhi. Speaking to B&E, he said “Drinking water supply is very sensitive issue and the society can’t afford to hand over it to private players. Here with the quantity, the quality of the water also plays a major role. In Delhi we are fed up with private companies, who are running the power supply projects. So, the distribution of water has to be in government’s hand.”


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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