Those Who Can Afford It Will Have Adequate Water

I was asked to give an overview of the Irish Right 2 Water campaign to a food and skills co-operative made up of largely ‘educated’ alternative types.
Ready for an argument, I carted in great reams of legal documents from the incorporation or Irish Water , state legislation, remunicipalization studies from Grenwich University, books including Water Wars by Vandana Shiva and The Price of Thirst by Karen Piper, not to mention sundry newspaper articles. I argued that water is a human right and that an ecological rather than a market paradaigm would provide a more sustainable supply for our small nation.
I also showed how our government had created sneaky legislation and incorporation rules that primed the resource for privatization, with whats appears to be an inbuilt share option for the crony board members at 5cent a share which they can sell at a vast profit with a nod from the ministers in charge (one of whom’s brother is active on the water privatization business Stateside). I pointed up how the government now will not answer any parliamentary questions about our water supply,( especially the one I put asking what kind of free allowances Diageo and Intel were receiving).
The talk went swimmingly, with the group agreeing we need a constitutional inclusion to protect the resource and the seed of a lobby around that germinating as the conversation evolved. Even the prospect of putting the water supply on the state balance sheet and possibly having to pay more tax didn’t phase them.
Then the bombshell crashed into my well massaged ego over herbal tea – ‘It’s great we now have all this information but all those protesters (from working class and rural areas) don’t even know what they are protesting about’.
Actually they do! Where did I get my information on the situation but from those (working class) protesters. They know all about years of austerity to pay odious bank debt. They know all about the IMF Troika who are funded by those same odious banksters who insisted on the sale (to them) of our public resources. Now our last resource, our precious waters, which we Irish have revered since the times of Finn McCool are to be stripped from us to pay these financial terrorists into perpetuity. These protesters talk on the streets of the prostituted media which mews approvingly at corporates and governments who throw them a preview tidbit of the next onslaught normally aimed at most vulnerable in our society. These protesters know they wont be able to pay water bills when prices are hiked up after the next general election. Then the normal MO of the World Bank/IMF kicks in. Those who can afford it will have water, those who cant will go thirsty or drink contaminated water. In many cases many will be evicted by rack renting greedy absentee landlords from their homes for non payment if the governmnet doesnt have them in jail first.

‘Vandana Shiva: The ecological paradigm focuses on the water cycle and recognizes that by its very nature water is a renewable resource. If we respect that cycle and do not interfere in it it’s going to give us abundance forever. But we have to function within it. We have to be bounded by it. Within that binding we have limitless water forever.

The market paradigm does not look at the water cycle. It begins with cash. It begins with finance and then it’s, “How can I invest if I have money to extract water as a raw material and put it into something else that will generate more cash?” When that paradigm starts to create water crises that same paradigm comes up with a second solution which it is now offering here at the WSSD (World Summit on Sustainable Development). It’s a big offer. “We will now privatize water and commodify it.” Water is being exploited because it is being treated as valueless, “Therefore, we will put a price on it,” but value and price are two very different things.
People without water are more likely to become extremists: Karen Piper
When you function in an ecological paradigm you value water but you don’t price it. Because it is in fact priceless. In a market paradigm you price water but you don’t value it.’

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Irish Water Services Act 2014

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A study commissioned by trade union Unison showed that water bills have risen by 64pc over the past 10 years, compared to just a 28pc rise in average earnings. By Jessica Winch

Since water privatisation in England and Wales in 1989, household water bills have trebled, well above increases in the rate of inflation.
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Teneo’s Declan Kelly delivers Bill Clinton, keeps expanding