Consumers, farmers and environment duped in privatization of water in the Philippines.
Posted on December 12 2003 |
,,The government should turn the tap''
From our editor in the Philippines
CALAPAN/MANILA – “In the mean time I still can give drink to my pigs. My well is almost 80 meters deep. But the one of my neighbor, which is only half as deep, doesn’t provide a single drop anymore. At that level, the water already has been drained by a huge drilling pit of a private water supplier. Later he might even let us pay for the water he first stole from us.”
We are with Ramon Bautista on the land of Bayanan, an agrarian area at the east coast of Mindoro, one of the largest islands of the Philippine archipelago. Bayanan officially belongs to the district of Calapan City. But only 17 of the 62 villages of Calapan are registered as urban areas. The other 45, one of which is Bayanan, are agrarian areas.
“Here we’ve had an abundance of water since time immemorial”, says Bautista. “Perfectly potable water. And free water. For several generations people have been dividing the supply solidary among each other. In that way, with my well I supply eight families that live around me. For that they don’t pay a single peso. In other villages mini water-cooperations arose spontaneously.”
This carefree water supply, according to a system that is still accepted over the whole Philippine countryside, threatens to come to an end for the inhabitants of Bayanan and surrounding villages. The big bogeyman is the Calapan Waterworks System Development Corporation (CWSDC), a private water company that, via political connections, already was granted a license in 1952 for the water distribution in Calapan. Financial perils of the owner Carlos Nable unfortunately led to the extension of the license to 50 years in 1969.
“CWSDC, as a private water supplier, has for a long time almost exclusively concentrated on the real urban districts of Calapan”, says Teresita ‘Tita’ de Guzman. Tita, a dynamic sixty-year-old, leads together with her husband Eduardo the local NGO Mahal, for whom the water file has become the main theme of the past years. “All those years CWSDC opted for the way of the easiest and cheapest efforts”, claims Tita. “A minimum of investments in waterworks infrastructure – only thirty percent of the inhabitants of Calapan center have a connection, the rest has to get water from waterpedlars – and not a single investment in extraction of surface water, a technique which could be perfectly possible and profitable in this river rich region.”
What has CWSDC done? It literally sucked every drop out the bottom with the drilling, with all the consequences thereof: the pumped water was no longer potable. In 2 of the 5 pits located in city districts salty sea water seeped in. This salination process is irreversible, according to specialists. The two pits had to be closed.
Tita: “the predictable consequences of the story? CWSDC requested and got the permission from the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) to open a new pit in the agricultural area which is outside the city, rich in water, right here in the barrio Bayanan Uno. The result is as the pig raiser Ramon Bautista put it: “our own small water pits became dry.” And the CWSDC received more requests for water pits.
The local community did everything to prevent the drilling of the CWSDC pits — petitions, manifestations, approaching politicians, hearings in Congress and the Senate in Manila — but all in vain. “We were threatened, no more, no less,” says Maria Virginia Garcia, one of the most fervent protesters. “In order to protect the opening of the pit, a military detachment, including bullet proof trucks, was sent out. The detachment was headed by the feared colonel Palparan, a man with a reputation of an executioner.”
“I was together with 5 other baranggay leaders. I was taken to court twice on charges of trespassing the prohibition to manifest and the alleged damaging of the CWSDC by slowing down its activities. We are facing prison and a fine of 500 pesos. Did our case not reach the media? Did the media not support us? Oh, sir, in this country, you have to pay the journalist if you want them to write something in their newspaper.”
The deputies of Bayanan got the support of the Legal Resource Center (LRC), an NGO with headquarters in Manila and is specialized in legal support. Lawyer Gary Bernal clamped unto this Calapan water war. “In this case which presents a dangerous precedent we try all possible legal means and procedures in order to defend the water interests of the farmer population. The Filipino Water Code stipulates that in case of a conflict about local use of water the original users must have the priority. The law states further that provincial, city and municipal councils have to give the green light in order to exploit a water source. In this case, the town did not give the green light. Given the risks of salination there are also serious questions to be raised surrounding the granting of the environmental permit. That a drilling permit has been issued before the legally specified complaint was completed is also a foot on which we could stand in order to fight out the case. We, however, know that the battle will be very tough.” Tita agrees: “Especially because we suspect that some leading Calapan politicians have vested interests in the water company CWSDC.”
The next day, back in Manila, we met with Lidy Nacpil, the secretary general of Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) a partner of 11.11.11. The parallel between the water war in Calapan and the debacle of the privatization of water in Manila is obvious to her: “Both files show how dangerous it is to surrender to the private sector a life-essential service like water supply. Water has to be stricken out of the GATS negotiation.” We briefed Lidy Nacpil about the meeting we had earlier that week with Eduardo Santos, head of the so-called Regulatory Office (RO). This RO was founded by the Philippine Government in 1997 as an instance of control at the moment of the giving of the water concessions to the two private companies Maynilad and Manila Water. During a laborious talk —“corruption is a perception, sir”— Santos had reluctantly admitted that Maynilad did not work perfectly. “But you may not draw the conclusion out of this, that the principle of privatization itself failed. It is only one company that perhaps falls short. If we would give the chance to another new player it might just be rather successful.”
FDC secretary-general Nacpil isn’t convinced at all. “What results has water privatization in Manila delivered? Far higher tariffs for the consumer, companies that couldn’t fulfil their investment promises, and the government which has to make loans because the concession-holders cannot fulfil their financial obligations. In such a case it would be better for the government to avoid such a roundabout way and turn on the tap themselves.”
Lidy Nacpil doesn’t see any good also in the middle course which the Filipino umbrella movement Bantay Tubig proposed in the water supply policy, a combination of government and private sector. “Even if private water companies want to make a loan for new works on infrastructure, still the banks demand anyway that the government stands bail. Let the government do it immediately on its own.”
That the governemt can consider a combination with private enterprise on the condition that there be before-hand built in strict rules, guaranties and control-mechanisms, makes Nacpil smile: “In the Manila case the Regulatory Office (RO) was meant as such an organism of control. But that RO turned out to be nothing more than a “yes” man and always served the interests of private companies, under the heavy pressure of Maynilad and Manila Water. Virgilio Ocaya, member of the RO protested against this course of events and was asked to leave.
“You know,” says Nacpil, “maybe a mixture of the private and the public is thinkable in countries where you have a real transparent and democratic government policy with politicians who don’t have personal ties and interests in the world of business. But in the Philippines that is, unfortunately, still a distant dream.
08/11/2003
Frans Vandeputte
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