Privatization of Water- A basic resource for life.
Posted on December 12 2003 |
By Fahim Zaman Khan
psfl57@hotmail.com
&
Mahar Safdar Ali
Muttahida Labour Federation Pakistan)
lahoriyar@hotmail.com
Pakistan is also a victim of the so–called development policies of IFI `s and a corrupt and myopic ruling elite. If some space was left for this increasingly impoverished nation of 140 million it is being eaten up by the Neo-liberal agenda for privatization of public assets. After over a decade of Neo-liberal onslaught it is amply evident that privatization has not necessarily promoted competition and advantages for consumers but it has definitely resulted in job losses, increase in costs, reduces quality of service and local controls and is very difficult to reverse.
Experts predict that by the year 2015 our country will be suffering from the dramatic effects of hydrological poverty. Pakistan has a “Water policy” regarding exploitation of fresh and seawater resources. But this policy is extremely wanting as it was coined by a corrupt and an incompetent bureaucracy with due assistance from equally alienated managers and consultants from World Bank, IMF and ADB in its formulation.
There is a long list of mega projects in water sector sponsored by the IFI’s but in each case those projects have brought deprivation and misery to hundreds of thousands of my countrymen. Whenever they have taken an engineering initiative the people have ended up paying dearly. It has been one socio-economic and environmental disaster after another. For example World Bank sponsored construction of NV drain (essentially an out-fall drain) it carried the water contaminated by pesticide, inorganic fertilizers and even industrial effluents all the way to Manchher lake near Dadu in Sindh. TDS level of Manchhar lake went above 4000 ppm and resulted in disruption of habitat of not only 22000 plus families that depended for fishing and irrigation on this lake but also for every other specie that existed there.
The pressures of globalization has forced our successive governments since mid 90`s to open our coastal Exclusive Economic Zone to deep sea fish trawling. The massive factory trawlers are not only depleting the fish stocks over which livelihoods of some two million fishermen depend but are also polluting the Indian ocean’s environment by dumping back the unwanted dead fish into the sea.
World bank and other IFI`s in their spree to fund mega projects have supported construction of massive dams over Kabul , Jhelum and Indus rivers. The economic, social, environmental and political cost of construction of these dams have been far greater than the benefits ( if any ) to the nation. These dams and their reservoirs have caused massive displacement of farmers, fishing communities herdsmen and villagers. The green revolution that was launched by utilizing the water stored at these dams has resulted in enormous environmental degradation and has increased the class difference in our society. The use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and insecticide has increased the requirement of water for irrigation, deteriorated the soil fertility and has increased water logging and salinity especially in Punjab and Sindh. These dams have obstructed the flow of rivers and resulted in just plain havoc to riverine forest and fishing and destruction of Indus delta.
Warsak dam is already gone Terbella and Mangla are silting up fast. WAPDA uses this capacity reduction as an excuse for construction of another dam near Kalabagh over Sindhu. However the misplaced priorities of our ruling elite, World bank / ADB managers and their consultants do not allow logical interventions like de-silting of existing dams or lining of irrigation canal.
During mid 90’s TAMS offered WAPDA to de-silt Tarbella Dam at less then 25 % of their estimated cost for construction of Kalabagh Dam. WAPDA out rightly rejects such proposals while the World Bank and ADB indicate non-availability of funds for such projects.
Kalabagh Dam is another very bad project whatever way it is looked at. WAPDA wants to raise the water level of the Indus river from 657 feet above MSL to 915 feet at a site where there are known geological faults. The proposed dam shall have a reservoir extending some 90 miles (150 Kms) upstream or beyond Attock just down-stream Terbella . The normal level of water at Terbella dam reservoir remains around 1550 feet above MSL. Its tunnels had a history of failing and blowing-up during 1970’s. One of the doomsday scenario sketches with Tarbella losing one of its tunnels during monsoon with Kabul and Indus rivers in high floods while Kalabagh was filed to the brim The resultant devastation is going to be mind-boggling. That scenario is not very far fetched during 1992 the floods in Jehlum surpassed WAPDA’s all MRF MPF estimates and it had to open the floodgates at Mangla to save the dam from the wrath of monsoons. That gushing body of water inundated over 15000 villages in Punjab. There was massive loss of life and property alongside river Jhelum.
Unfortunately WB has just indicated allocation of another $13.5 Billion to finance future construction and maintenance of large dams in Pakistan. ADB (as we understand) is also stretching its wings to the fullest. In addition to Kalabagh Dam we may have many more candidates for this funding. WAPDA intends to raise the reservoir level at Mangla by another 40 feet. The greater Thal Canal is another project that promises our Generals-turned-Landlords windfall profits. Amusingly neither Punjab nor Sindh appear to be interested in even rehabilitating the people affected by the enlargement of Mangla reservoir in Pakistan controlled Kashmir. The military controlled WAPDA promises Greater Thal canal to be only a flood canal but no one in southern provinces believes them.
The IFI’s are also extensively involved in planning and mismanagement of our urban water resources. A good example may be that of city of Karachi where WB and ADB has been involved in several water and sewage projects. These include K-I and K-2 (100 mgd each addition to city’s water supply from Indus) and sewage treatment plants.
Karachi in many ways is a very unique city in South Asia. City’s population has grown from 0.3 million to 1.3 million in a span of less than 56 years. Since 1947 the infrastructure development has been and continues to be on ad-hoc basis. This mega-port city of Pakistan is located more than a hundred Kms from the nearest potable water source. Karachi receives around 363 million gallons per day from Indus River and another 100 mgd from Hub dam in Baluchistan. KWSB admits that over 40% of this water is wasted through the leakages in its poorly maintained distribution system. Instead of plugging these leakages they are trying to import another 100 mgd of water from River Indus. This will no doubt further deplete Indus delta of freshwater adding to the pains of fishing communities in the delta, degrade number of mangroves, reduce colonies of pullah (a local fish) and no doubt shall have adverse effect on already endangered Indus Blind Dolphin while little or no gain in available quantity of potable water for Karachi. ADB has also financed construction of three sewage treatment plants with a cumulative capacity of around 165 MGD in the city. Unfortunately neither the KWSB FAP (foreign aided project) managers nor the ADB consultants were able to recognize a lack of connectivity of most of the 210 mgd of sewage generated in the city. The result is that over 150 mgd of raw sewage is still getting dumped into the Indian Ocean.
As part of its neo liberal agenda, World Bank during mid 90’s pressurized Federal and provincial governments to privatize ‘Karachi Water and Sewage Board’. Almost half the city’s residents live in Katchi Abadis (shanty townships) and are not connected with city’s piped water supply system. The World Bank appointed consultant Bank Paribas was not even willing to include the issue of water supply to Katchi Abadis in the TOR’s. However, after several years of struggle against the move and many stumbling blocks including a suit filled by the residents at the Sindh High Court it was finally thwarted.
WAPDA also intends to offer Hydro-electric power generation units for privatization. If that happens it will ultimately also effect the control of bulk water supply. Already urban households may be paying as high as Rs.1100 per month for water one only wonders what shall be the effect over our rural farmers that constitutes over seventy percent of our population, once the main water supply sources are handed over to private monopolies.
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