World Development Movement admits sorry state of nationalised water
By Alex Singleton on Sep 27, 2005 in International development
In this week’s e-mail newsletter from the World Development Movement, an anti-capitalist pressure group, there is an attack water privatisation. It says Britain’s Department for International Development is wrong to assist Sierra Leone which has asked DFID for help tendering out and regulating its water system. But the e-mail admits the sorry state of the state-run water system in Sierra Leone: only 28 percent of the population has access to clean drinking water. Thanks to a state-run system, 72 percent of the people have to drink dirty water.
Puzzlingly, this is the same failed system that the World Development Movement wants to keep, despite the overwhelming evidence that water privatisation increases quality and access to water thanks to greater investment and overseas expertise. Unfortunately, some people prefer to put ideological purity before water purity.
Risto F. Harma | Jun 1, 2008 | Reply
This article above about the World Development Movement’s complete confusing, is a classic of western NGO muddle, and possibly, lack of professionalism or having properly trained advocacy staff. Go to any developing country that is suffering from a lack of essential services and you will see that poor people, who are the ones really suffer as a result, have to buy their water from private sources at high prices. Worse, when there is a real shortage on, richer people will buy up supplies sometimes meaning there is not water at all at any price for poor people. Hence enter a privatised system: while not ideal for poor people, if they are forced to pay for the new privatised system they are at least probably getting it cheaper than they did before from the individual water sellers, plus with more realiability. That has to be a significant improvement. I challenge anyone at World Development Movement to say otherwise: use of a little imagination is in order, e.g. when it is approaching 50 degrees C, when people are dying from the heat, more cheaper water has to be better than less expensive and irratic water? I suggest the World Development Movement advocacy staff go to New Delhi and take up residence in a slum, and see how it feels at 50 C with dodgy water. In fact I know a lady in slum who can help them with this “research”. WDM: whatever happens: for God sake get your research right, and stop misleading the western public.
Risto F. Harma
NGO worker and researcher, India and Nigeria country experience