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dam-l [environmentaljournalists] CORRUPTION CHARGES DOG WATER MULTINATIONALS AT WORLDWATER FORUM
>From the Asia Forum of Environmental Journalists. Note ref. to Lesotho.
The news that a senior Vivendi manager planned to bribe Milan
politicians to win a 200 billion Lire water supply and sanitation project
highlights the fact that the majority of the top 10 water multinationals are
implicated in underhanded schemes to rig bids and pad profits.
Many of these companies - including Vivendi -- were in The Hague last week
for the World Water Forum, where officials from government and business are
meeting to discuss opening up the world's public water systems to greater
private control.
'Water privatization and corruption go hand in glove - even the World Bank
has acknowledged it. At this forum corruption is not on the agenda, but
privatization clearly is,' said David Boys of Public Services International,
one of more than 10 groups working in a coalition called the Blue Planet
Project to challenge the role of privatization in the world's water systems.
PSI research exposes corruption in water privatization schemes from France
to Southern Africa to Indonesia. 'This forum hands the future of water to,
in some cases, convicted criminals,' he added.
In one highly-publicized case in Lesotho, subsidiaries of a dozen
multinationals are being prosecuted for paying bribes to win contracts in
the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, a huge water supply scheme. The
companies include Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, Bouygues and RWE.
'This is a massive scandal. The government is throwing money into the wind,
making European companies and a handful of Lesotho individuals rich at the
expense of communities flooded out of their homes and deprived of water,'
said Lance Veotte, a delegate to the forum and the national water
co-ordinator for the South African Municipal Workers' Union.
'That money should be spent on developing water infrastructure in the poor
townships - not lining the pockets of the water multinationals,' said
Veotte.
The Blue Planet Project is an international effort to protect the world's
fresh water from trade and privatization. The project brings together
non-governmental organizations and trade unions from around the world
including Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Mexico, Slovakia,
Philippines, Greece, Canada, the United States, the UK, Germany, Sweden,
Japan and France.
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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