| PSI in Utilities |
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 Utility services such as water, waste, gas and electricity
are fundamental building blocks of society. Without access to
water, no society can develop. Electricity allows our children to
study, our factories to produce. These utilities are far too
essential to be left solely to unpredictable market forces. It is
the responsibility of government to ensure equitable
delivery.
PSI members are committed to delivering
reliable, accessible and equitable utility services in their
communities. We help our member unions deal with the
ideologically-motivated privatisation and deregulation agendas that are
devastating the world's utilities. Workers and their
unions must be involved in all proposals to improve these
services.
If you would like to contribute to the PSI Utilities programme,
please contact david.boys@world-psi.org
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Latest News |
A comparative evaluation of PPPs and PuPs for urban water services in ACP countries
The European Parliament has published a new study that evaluates the comparative advantages of public-private partnerships (PPPs) and public-public partnerships (PUPs) in urban water services in Africa. The study concludes that there are notable differences between what PPPs and PuPs can offer.
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U.N. Declares Water and Sanitation a Basic Human Right
On 28 July 2010 a widely-expanded 192- member General Assembly adopted a memorable resolution recognising water and sanitation as a basic human right.
The resolution proved politically divisive, with 122 countries voting for it and 41 abstaining, but with no negative votes.
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Strikers claim takeover of French power company
Strikers who have been blockading the electricity supply on Wallis Island for the past four months are now claiming they have taken over French company Suez and its subsidiary Electricity of Wallis and Futuna (EWF). The group also claims they have the backing of the King of Wallis, who announced through a spokesman that the public supply contract with EWF had now been terminated.
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Join the Global Week of Action for the Human Right to Water and Sanitation
Public Services International (PSI) requests affiliates to take immediate action on the UN General Assembly resolution titled The Human Right to Water and Sanitation. By declaring water and sanitation a human right, this historic resolution is a critical step to addressing the misery and deaths that result from not having clean water and sanitation. The right to water and sanitation is supported by many PSI unions and allies.
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Italy: Water is not for sale
The Italian Supreme Court of Cassation is considering a petition to defend water as a common good and to remove it from the grasp of the private market. "There has been an extraordinary mobilization, more than 1.4 million people have participated,” said Paolo Carsetti of the Forum Italiano dei Movimenti per l’Acqua (Italian Forum of the Movements for Water), a national network that has been collecting signatures for a referendum against the privatisation of Italy’s water system.
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PUBLIC SERVICES. Water, water everywhere…
The “Water is not for sale” campaign, that runs until 24 July, is an initiative of the Forum Italiano dei Movimenti per l’Acqua, a network of national associations and local committees that is collecting signatures for a referendum against the liberalisation of Italy’s water system.
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How a Tiny Town Sent an International Water Giant Packing
In 2008, weeks after communities all over the United States celebrated the Fourth of July, the tiny town of Felton, Calif., marked its own holiday: Water Independence Day. With barbecue, music, and dancing, residents marked the end of Felton’s six-year battle to gain control of its water system. The fight, like the festivities, was a grassroots effort. For when a large, private corporation bought Felton’s water utility and immediately raised rates, residents organized, leading what was ultimately a successful campaign for public ownership and inspiring other communities nationwide.
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Government Moves to Claim $48 Million Compensation from Coca-Cola
In a major step towards holding Coca-Cola accountable for damages it has caused in India, the state government of Kerala decided on Wednesday to move forward with the formation of a tribunal that will hear and award compensation claims against the Coca-Cola company. The Kerala state cabinet's decision is based on the report and recommendations of a High Power Committee which released a report on March 22, 2010 holding Coca-Cola responsible for causing pollution and water depletion in Plachimada in the state of Kerala in south India.
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Private water companies must provide information to citizens
The Chennai High Court in India imposes Freedom of Information on private water operators, despite the latter’s attempt to protect commercial secrets : "When Constitution had mandated the local bodies to discharge such functions [as water supply] and the State legislature had created a local body with the essential function of water supply and sewage treatment and if that work is entrusted to another body corporate, certainly that body corporate discharges functions akin to a local body. Therefore, every citizen has a right to know the working of such bodies, lest they may be fleeced by such companies which until the BOOT period must explain to the people about their activities. Transparency in their functioning and the right to know by the citizen can never be curtailed on the plea of the petitioner company before the Commission."
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Why controlling your water supply is so important
“Providing clean, accessible, affordable water is not only the most basic of all government services, but throughout history, control of water has defined the power structure of societies,” Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman, filmmakers who documented the effort of Stockton, California, to fight privatization, wrote in the book Water Consciousness. “If we lose control of our water, what do we as citizens really control through our votes, and what does democracy mean?”
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| New thinking |
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We urgently need to rethink privatisation, deregulation and liberalisation. These strategies are all failing. The links below will take you to a wealth of research which demonstrates this. Corporate control is failing to provide more investment capital and better governance of public utilities. The costs of these failures are being imposed
directly on utility workers. As jobs are cut, health and safety protections are reduced, and training is minimised, all in the name of profits and ‘competition’. And it is our communities which suffer in the long run.
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8 - 22 March 2008
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