Grassroots Movement Blocks Mexican Water Privatization Scheme

[eridani]

http://portside.org/2015-03-28/grassroots-movement-blocks-mexican-water-privatization-scheme?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter#sthash.OHnPanca.dpuf

The ruling party (PRI) and its allies, the National Action Party (PAN), the Partido Verde and New Alliance, were forced to back down in the Chamber of Deputies. The privatization offensive launched this time against water, will have to wait for another day—preferably for its promoters, not around elections.

The procedure to rule on the proposed General Water Act, scheduled for Tuesday, March 10, was deferred indefinitely. A news report recorded the aggressive response of PRI deputy Manlio Fabio Beltrones, who bared his disappointment in no uncertain terms. He described those who called the initiative regressive as “slow learners”, and said the approval process for the initiative was suspended because “some politicians in campaign want to take it as a banner and run with it.”

The fact is that faced with this imminent heist of public goods, the citizenry reacted immediately. The Union of Concerned Scientists in Mexico demanded a public discussion of the initiative and issued a statement that in a few hours garnered over ten thousand signatures.

The scientists denounced the lack of transparency in the approval process for the initiative and affirmed that the contents violate Article 4 of the Mexican Constitution, which reads, “Everyone has the right to access, provision and sanitation of water for personal and domestic consumption

[Fred Sanders]

1. Mexico has clean water for all...in the Constitution?! Viva Mexico.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Hoping the people's movement in Mexico will only grow. It's time to reverse the direction

decisions have gone without respecting the people's needs.

If they are wise, officials will remember the people of the Americas already know from experience, what happens to them when their officials make decisions which favor the 1% on matters as essential as water.

[forest444]

3. Shades of the 2000 Cochabamba Water Revolt. Good for them.

You might remember the controversy at the time, the one in which the World Bank coerced Bolivia's right-wing government at the time to privatize the water district in Cochabamba (the second-largest city in Bolivia). Rates were immediately raised 50% and locals were legally forbidden to even collect water on their own properties. Bolivia is South America's poorest country, and two out of three Bolivians live in severe poverty according to the UN.

A revolt ensued, and Bechtel's concession was ultimately canceled. Bechtel sued Bolivia for $30 million (they had invested but $1 million in Cochabamba's water system); but in a rare case of activist success, the World Bank's International Disputes Settlement court were persuaded by the facts, and awarded Bechtel a symbolic 30 cents (as we all know, they did all right during the Iraq War shortly thereafter).

It is worth noting, however, that half of Metro Cochabamba's people still have no running water - a stark reminder that as important as it is prevent abuses from brigands like Bechtel, the World Bank itself must be reformed to make sure its efforts are directed at helping -not hampering- public works plans in countries like Bolivia. Try as someone like Evo Morales might, the country's scanty tax base simply cannot afford the kind of works that can keep up with needs like those in Bolivia.

http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/the-cochabamba-water-revolt-ten-years-later