Country & City Focus

Berliner Wassertisch: The most important steps

In 1999, the Federal State of Berlin was facing the same problems as many other underfinanced cities and regions in Europe. It had debts of around € 34.8 billion. The administration in Berlin had only one solution to this problem: it had to save money and privatize public services. The Maastricht Treaty was cited in justification of this political course of action, as it required EU Member States to “consolidate” their budgets. This policy of privatization, generally known as PPP (Public-Private Partnership), was pushed through against the wishes of the population. Between 1994 and 2007, public property worth € 13.7 billion was sold off in Berlin. Today, Berlin’s debt level amounts to € 62 billion. Policy then was based on the principle of “Private can do everything better”. There was thus no political power left that could give expression to the citizens’ wishes.

berlin

Then direct democracy stepped into the gap

Alcázar de San Juan keeps fighting for public water

The neighbors of Alcazar de San Juan have locked themselves inside the city council for 72 hours to demand a binding referendum on water privatization, a proposal backed by 11,000 signatures from a town of 32,000 inhabitants. Despite the outcry, the city council rejected the proposal and tentatively awarded Aguas de Alcázar (the municipal service of water) to Aqualia, a company belonging to the group FCC (Fomento de Construcciones y Contractors) for 25 years.

Despite the decision of the council, which was in favor of privatization due to the casting vote of the mayor (he cast the deciding vote amongst 10 votes against and 10 in favour), the population of Alcazar kept demonstrating on Friday afternoon. More than 5,000 people went through the streets shouting "Yes we can", "If you also take a shower, join the fight", "Water is not for sale, water fights back" or "Ortega resignation". They arrived at the headquarters of Aqualia and read an impromptu statement in which they said that 'the most important thing in this process are not the answers we receive, but the questions we ask" and explained that the mobilization would continue.

Summary of the remunicipalization of the water service in Italia

What happened after the water referendum in Italy?

After the referendum victory, a tenacious battle for its application and the remunicipalization of the water service was initiated.

The Constitutional Court judgement 199/2012 (July 20, 2012)

On August 13 2011, the Berlusconi government approved the Decree Law 138/2011, which substantially reintroduced the same rules that the referendum had repealed. One year later, the Constitutional Court cancelled this Decree Law as unconstitutional.

Attempt to subject "Aziende speciali" (public bodies managing services of general interest) and "in-house S.p.A." (public joint stock companies) to the internal stability pact. As is evident, forcing public bodies to respect the Stability Pact means to greatly reduce their possibility to invest in the service and therefore encouraging the process of privatization.

Foundation-meeting of the Berlin Water Assembly

Berlin, 29 november 2013

Yesterday more than 40 people, mostly representatives of initiatives and organisations, started together with the Berlin Water Table the first phase of the foundation-meeting of the Berlin Water Assembly (working title).

First statements were made i.a. by representatives of the Berlin Energy Table, Allianz der öffentlichen Wasserwirtschaft (AöW), Verband Deutscher Grundstücksnutzer (VDGN), Ökowerk Berlin und Genossenschaft von unten. Other associations and initiatives will join at the next meetings.

Umbria: Hundreds of self-reduced water bills!

Two years after the referendum of 12 and 13 June 2011 in Italy, hundreds of water and sanitation service users from the Umbrian Region took the initiative to self-reduce their water bills, cutting out the abhorred Invested Capital Return (ICR), the private operator’s share of profits guaranteed by law but repealed by the referendum. The referendum victory in June 2011 gave the Comitato Umbro Acqua Pubblica an extra weapon to fight against the privatization of water!

The Comitato Umbro Acqua Pubblica was first created in 2006, to support the Comitato Tutela Rio Fergia of Boschetto^[1], a committee mobilized against Rochetta Spa, the multinational which bottles water from the Umbrian Apennines, exhausting groundwater, drying local torrents and jeopardizing a good part of regional water resources. If this was the starting point, mobilizing against the privatization of the SII^[2], has became a natural consequence.

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