Bolivia's Morales Celebrates Water Company's Nationalisation
In a further progressive step towards ensuring democratic control of his nations natural resources, Bolivian President Evo Morales on Wednesday, 3rd January celebrated the departure of French-owned water utility Aguas de Illimani.
"Water cannot be turned over to private business," Morales said.
In a ceremony at the presidential palace in La Paz, Morales officially bade farewell to the affiliate of French transnational Suez, who under a previous, neo-liberal regime, had been granted a contract to manage, and profit from, this public utility.
The foreign owned company will be replaced by a newly formed public utility and comes on the back of the move last May, by the Bolivian government to effectively nationalise the countries vast gas reserves. This event holds particular significance for Ireland as British government inspired water charges are due to come in to affect in the Six Counties within a matter of months. Éirígí, and others involved in campaigns to protect Ireland’s natural resources believe this is a first step toward eventual privatisation of water services across the nation.
Éirígí chairperson Brian Leeson expressed his pleasure at the move by Morales to return Bolivia’s water supply to democratic control. “Éirígí welcomes President Morales’ initiative. At the heart of this debate, and the Bolivian governments’ decision, is the right of the peoples of any country to the democratic control of their countries resources, be it water, oil, gas, fisheries or any other natural resource. With the imminent introduction of water charges in the Six Counties, the reality and consequences of water privatisation is being brought home to the Irish people. Surely, water, one of the basic necessities of human existence, should remain outside the ambit of profit-making”.
He continued “We in Éirígí would like to pay credit to the ongoing efforts of all those involved in the anti-water charges campaign in the Six Counties and add our support to the non-payment campaign. The tactic of non-payment of unjust taxation has been used successfully on numerous occasions across the globe”.