Water Time: more participation needed in water operations
Participation of workers and more broadly citizens is important in decisions affecting the future of (municipal) water operations. This was the general conclusion shared by participants in the final meeting of the Water Time project, University of Greenwich. EPSU was represented in the Steering Committee of this project. EPSU deputy general secretary participated drawing attention to the different European pressures on the water sector. The conservative majority of a European parliament committee voted to include water and sanitation services and other services of general economic interest under the scope of the Services Directive. “An unacceptable decision. We reject the commercialisation of public services and the values that sustain them such as the human right to water.“
The large scale project researched developments in the water sector. Its final product is a list of Good Practice Recommendations aiming to improve the process of decision-making on water and sanitation services. These recommendations are based on 29 case studies which describe in detail how decisions were made to run municipal water systems. Interesting are the cases which detail privatisations and the results. They demonstrate the widespread popular opposition, the undemocratic decision-making and in some cases the corrupt dealings of politicians and corporate interests. Trade union and other organisations faced with questions over the future of their municipal water system (privatisation, concessions, etc) are encouraged to make use of them. Apart from negative examples there are positive cases such as the participatory model of the municipal company from Cordoba that offer themselves as an alternative. The cases also tackle the myth that private sector will bring in additional investment, there is little evidence for this.
The project was coordinated by PSIRU and included participation from researchers in Hungary, Finland, Spain and Germany. The Steering Committee had representation from CEMR, CEEP, European Environmental Bureau (EEB), Consumers International and EPSU.
An overview of European developments, the case studies and the recommendations and decision-making aid are available at www.watertime.org
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