The UN on water commodification

Patrick Bond pbond at wn.apc.org
Tue Mar 14 00:10:16 PST 2000


Did anyone see the United NationsWorld Commission on Water for the 21st Century report, out yesterday? (Our main Jhb paper, Business Day, http://www.bday.co.za has an article this morning.)

The report, according to the summary, makes this recommendation for global water management: "Letting the private sector take the lead in providing water supplies, because it alone has the money to make investments of such huge size. Governments should keep out of the water business, except as regulators and protectors of the environment."

There are two excellent SA radicals going to the commission launch in the Hague this weekend, amongst a variety of international social movement and left NGO folk, coordinated in part by Council of Canadians. I hope they can deal this appalling WashingtonConsensus logic a devastating blow. The chair of the UN water commission, Ismail Serageldin (you guessed it, a World Bank vice president), really needs a Bob Naiman-style dash of very cold Dutch water on his expensive suit as a wakeup call.

Who out there thinks the UN is a useful place to start doing reform of the global state? Shut it down too, I say!

P.



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