Greetings Gambia-l,
This might be of interest to some of you.

regards,
Momodou Camara - Copenhagen /Denmark

                      *** 21-Mar-00* ***

Title: DEVELOPMENT-WATER: Private Investments For
Development Urged

By Jaya Ramachandran

THE HAGUE, Mar 21 (IPS) -- Global water security can only be
achieved if the private sector coperates with the government and
invests in development, says Dutch Minister for Development
Cooperation, Evelin Herfkens.

She was addressing a two day ministerial meeting, part of what
is officially known as the Second World Water Forum that began
March 17 and ends Wednesday.

The gatherings have been joined by about 115 government
ministers and 158 delegations from around the globe.

"We simply will not be able to raise the enormous extra sum of
a hundred billion US dollars by relying on governments or
development aid," said Herfkens.

The global meetings are aimed at creating "a world with enough
clean water for everyone" by 2025. They are expected to come up
with a Framework for Action.

The events are jointly organised by the World Water Council and
the Dutch government.

Ahead of the opening of the Forum, the World Water Commission,
headed by Ismail Serageldin, warned that many of the world's vast
underground reservoirs of water - the main source of additional
fresh water for the 21st century - were being depleted and
polluted rapidly, in both industrial and developing countries.

"The problem is not widely recognised because it is going on
underground where no one can see it," said Serageldin, who is also
World Bank Vice President for Special Programmes.

"However in many places the situation has already reached
crisis thresholds and may be economically irreversible," he
warned.

The Commission recommended more than doubling of global water
investment from the current figures of 70-80 billion US dollars
annually to 180 billion US dollars. Almost all the increase will
have to come from the private sector, which means no increased
spending by governments.

While agreeing with the report, Herfkens took into account the
objections raised by civil society organisations specialising on
water issues.

"The private sector will not invest unless it can expect to
make a profit. Governments will, therefore, need to ensure that
also the poorest groups can afford water," she said.

In this context, Herfkens stressed the importance of the
participation of end users - many of them women. That, she said,
would make or break water management.

"The question here is what types of reforms are needed to
ensure a greater level of public participation in key decisions on
the management of water resources?"

In order to achieve water security by 2025, Herfkens added, it
was necessary to meet basic needs, protect ecosystems, secure the
food supply, share water resources, manage risks, valuing water
and governing water wisely.

The World Water Commission's report was, however, strongly
criticised by the United States-based International Rivers Network
and the Netherlands-based International Committee on Dams, Rivers
and People Both Ends.

In a statement issued Mar 17, the two organisations said: "The
key conclusions of the report -- that there is a global water
shortage crisis which can only be solved with a massive increase
in private funding for water projects in developing countries,
backed up with guarantees from the World Bank and other aid
agencies -- were predetermined."

Much of the report was a restatement of general principles
already agreed at an international water meeting in Dublin in 1992
and since endorsed at numerous meetings of the global water
establishments and promoted in numerous World Bank reports and
press releases, added the report.

The two organisations said the problem was less one of global
shortages of either water or investments, than one of
mismanagement and skewed political priorities.

"The crisis is one of overconsumption, waste, pollution,
watershed degradation, rampant dam building, poorly conceived and
operated infrastructure projects, corruption and inequality," they
maintained.

The issue was approached from another angle by Claude Genereux,
Vice President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, a member
of a coalition of groups working under the Blue Planet Project
Banner to challenge the role of privatisation in the world's water
systems.

The project brings together non-governmental organisations and
trade unions from around the world including Argentina, Bolivia,
Brazil, Mexico, Canada, United States, Japan, Philippines, South
Africa, Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Slovakia and Sweden.

In a statement issued in the Hague Monday, Genereux said:
"Public-private partnerships (PPP) are little more than
privatisation in a pretty package -- leaving the public little
control over a vital resource while unaccountable corporations
reap guaranteed profits."

In one recent PPP scheme researched by Public Services
International, the Chilean water company EMOS was privatised last
year to Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux.

The deal allows Suez to appoint the majority of the directors
of the board despite holding less than half the shares. At the
same time, the Suez-controlled EMOS has a state-guaranteed 33
percent profit margin, Genereux reported.

In another statement, the Blue Planet Project said: "Water
privatisation and corruption go hand in glove -- even the World
Bank has acknowledged." It regretted that at the Second World
Water Forum, corruption was not on the agenda.

While the controversy on PPP continued unabated, the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
reported that farmers and scientists were developing innovative
crops such as "hardy corn" and promoting better agronomic
techniques to help the 2.7 billion people who will be living in
water-scarce regions by the year 2025.

The CGIAR is headed by Serageldin. He said Tuesday, CGIAR
scientists had also helped to create a new global database called
The World Water and Climate Atlas for Agriculture that will serve
as a high-tech tool for managing water resources for farmers,
agronomists, engineers, conservationists, meteorologists,
researchers and government policy makers. (END/IPS/jrc/sm/00)


Origin: Harare/DEVELOPMENT-WATER/
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