| Author (Person) | Cronin, David |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.10, No.20, 3.6.04 |
| Publication Date | 03/06/2004 |
| Content Type | News |
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By David Cronin Date: 03/06/04 SIX thousand children will die today because they lack access to clean water. The appalling state of the availability of this natural resource imposes colossal costs on health systems in poor countries. Proportionately every second hospital bed in the world has somebody suffering from a water-borne disease lying in it. At the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, leaders made pledges about tackling this life and death issue head on. Almost two years later, the EU approved a 1.4 billion euro-a-year Water Facility for the African, Caribbean and Pacific bloc at a joint ministerial meeting with the ACP countries in early May. Work is now under way to identify how an initial €250 million from the fund can be spent, with the intention of having projects already financed by the end of this year. The European Commission, which originally proposed the fund, said that it wants it to be a "powerful catalyst for change". But it acknowledged too that it would be "a drop in the ocean" on its own. The Johannesburg summit saw leaders reiterating their commitment to the UN's Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people with no access to safe drinking water by 2015. Yet it is estimated that realizing that objective would cost €10 billion per annum. However, many campaign groups have queried whether the EU is motivated by boosting enormous water companies or by genuine philanthropy. The belief that the Union is pursuing a global agenda of water privatization was fuelled by a request made by its executive in 2002. Submitted to the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Geneva headquarters, this proposed that 72 WTO members should open up water delivery to international competition as part of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The Commission is known to have been lobbied by major European firms in favour of privatization. While just 5% of the world's water supply is currently provided by the private sector, France's Vivendi and Suez account for 70% of that share between them. "Foreign companies, who are primarily responsible to their shareholders back home, are unlikely to make the cuts in profits that are necessary to ensure universal access to water," states a study by the World Development Movement. But Commission spokesman Jean-Charles Ellermann Kingombe rejects allegations that the Water Facility will be a vehicle for foisting privatization on poor countries: "We are not pursuing a policy of privatization for the sake of privatization. What we are looking at is the ability of former state-owned enterprises to deliver quality services in water and other areas. If that is best solved by a public sector provider, that's fine, if it is best solved by a private one, then that's fine as well." |
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| Subject Categories | Politics and International Relations |
