Water supply and management projects of multi-lateral institutions are insensitive and detrimental to the needs of people and communities because they are market-driven. The commodification and privatization of water supply and water services violate the principle of water as an inalienable human right.

The right to water is included in those inalienable human rights and freedoms essential for human survival, liberty and dignity that have been recognized by the global community and protected by international legal instruments. Everyone is entitled to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses. The human right to water unequivocally affirms that water is a public good and not a commodity.

A global water crisis is threatening the life and health of millions of vulnerable sectors and marginalized, impeding them in attaining their right to development. The 2006 United Nations Human Development Report (UNHDR) estimates that 1.1 billion people lack access to safe water while 2.6 billion people lack access to decent sanitation, 63% of this number is in Asia. People who subsist under less than a dollar a day are the immediate victims.

The Water for the People Network (WPN) cites that 443 million school days are lost to water-borne illnesses. Almost half of the total population in developing countries suffers from health problems linked to lack of water and sanitation. Countless women and children are forced to walk long miles and carry backbreaking gallons of water from questionable sources every single day. Lack of access to safe drinking water has become the world’s second largest killer of children, killing 1.8 million children annually.

As more and more peoples experience water shortages, inequity in access gives rise to intensifying conflicts in the demand for water. The economic, social and political impacts surrounding the control, accessibility and affordability of water resources are sources of economic and political conflict.

The Culprit: Profit-driven growth

Big investors in the profit-driven game of mining and other industrial activities cannot but continue to pollute natural water supplies such as underground water, rivers, lakes and streams. The unreasonable speed of industrialization creates heavy metals and acids—pollutants that contaminate water resources. To deliver water to commercial and industrial sites, mega dams have been constructed and streams diverted. The total number of dams from all over the world has increased from only 5000 in 1950 to 38,000. The number of altered waterways for navigation increased from 9000 in 1990 to half a million today.

Infrastructure projects have caused flooding, displacement, loss of access to the land and its livelihood resources. Indigenous, agricultural and poor urban communities are grossly affected by waste water, 90% of which is discharged untreated by big business into local streams and rivers. Water-related diseases like cholera and the deadly E. coli bacteria are most rampant in Asian, African and Latin American countries. Altered water systems have led to serious environmental, social and economic problems such as siltation, increased salinity, physical and economic displacement among other things.

The profit-driven model takes advantage of the fact that resources are not infinite. In the case of water, only 1% of the total water on earth is freshwater. Human and animal water consumption is only limited to half of this small percentage as the remaining amounts constitute glaciers that are inaccessibly buried in ground water and soil. Continental rainfall which is approximately produced in 40,000-45,000 cubic km. annually is the only renewable source of water.

The control and supply of water are seen by big business as capital and a source of profit. Under the guise of greater efficiency of private over public ownership, big business and multi-lateral financial institutions exploit this limited resource, treating it as if it were a tradable commodity like others supplied by the market. This is their justification for the privatization of utilities and the accumulation of profit.

The UNHDR’s 2006 report states that there is more than enough water to go around. What this means is that the limited physical availability of water is not the sole factor that affects water shortages worldwide. The shortage of water, particularly for the poor who suffer from it, is a problem of inequity in access among countries and within societies.

One in every five people in developing countries lack access to at least 20 liters of safe water- the basic access to water set by the World Health Organization (WHO). In contrast, average use is 10-15 times that amount for Europe and close to 30 times that amount for the United States. Inequity to water does not only exist between rich and poor countries but within societies. Urban residents have more reliable supply than rural residents. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 10% of the urban population and 28% of the rural population do not have access to potable water while 21% of the urban populations and 75% of rural populations do not have access to sanitation services worldwide.ii

That water is finite need not result in world populations suffering for big business. The issue of inequity in access as a factor that greatly affects water shortages more than other variants such as climate change, population explosion, geographical make up, urbanization and increasing demand is telling of how the commodification and the privatization in the water sector cannot solve the water shortage. Therefore, any institution that reinforces these schemes must be exposed and opposed.

Water and the Private Sector: A dangerous mixture

The Philippine case proves wrong ADB’s assumption that the private sector is more efficient than its public counterpart. The privatization of the Manila Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) initially promised continuous water supply, optimum quality water and lowered tariffs. None of these promises have ever been fulfilled. Instead, the people have been subjected to rising water rates, poor water service, threatened public health and burdened the government with increased debt.

The current Macapagal-Arroyo administration warns the public of a full-blown water shortage by 2010 as a pretext for the Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) approach. This approach, as critiqued by the WPN, would open the door for the wholesale corporate takeover of water resources in the country. At present, each Filipino only has 1,907 cubic meters of freshwater–the second lowest freshwater availability in Southeast Asia. After a ten-year period of privatization from August 1997 to January 2007, water rates hiked by 357.6% for Maynilad (operated by Suez) and 414.4% for Manila Water (under UK’s United Utilities and Mitsubishi Corporation).

While the poor are literally dried up and deprived of their right to water, the rich profiteers through their institutional conduits such as ADB, the World Bank and similar institutions benefit from this dire condition by selling the expensive drama of “water scarcity.”

ADB’s “Water for All” policy has driven the commodification of water and the privatization of water service to a speed that has injured the health and threatened the lives of poor communities. This complete disregard for their right to water is unjust and an act of absolute exclusion to those who are already marginalized. For the poor and the laboring people, there is no time like the present for a decisive struggle for the human right to water.

Notes:

1. his article is reproduced from the April 2009 maiden issue of IFI Water Watch Alerts, a project of the Water for the People Network. The IFI Water Watch monitors IFI funded water projects in Asia.
2. Right to Water Module by the Water for the People Network
3. International Financial Watch
4. Ibid.
5. Monitoring Post Project Completion Evaluation Process: Khulna-Jessore Drainage Rehabilitation Project, Water for the People Network.
6. Ibid.