Brazil’s new government imposes Rio water privatisation to pay for Olympic
Games
Corporate Europe Observatory, July 16, 2016
http://www.corporateeurope.org/print/2317
A few weeks after the May coup against Dilma Rousseff [1] by conservative
parties backed by the country's largest corporations, Brazil's "interim"
government, led by Michel Temer, signed an emergency loan to the State of
Rio de Janeiro to help finance infrastructure for the 2016 Olympics [2]--in
particular for a subway line connecting the sports venues. The bailout was
conditional to selling off the State's public water supply and sanitation
company, the Companhia Estadual de Aguas e Esgotos (Cedae).
When we interviewed City Councillor and chair of Rio’s Special Committee on
the Water Crisis Renato Cinco, in December 2015, he was already warning
against such privatisation threats and provided important background
information on the water situation in Rio. We are releasing a transcription
of the interview.
Renato "Cinco" Athayde Silva was elected to the City Council of Rio de
Janeiro in 2012 as a member of PSOL, a Brazilian left-wing party created in
2004 in opposition to liberal measures taken by the Lula government. Born in
Rio in 1974 and trained as a sociologist, Renato Cinco is Vice-President of
the Commission on the Defense of Human Rights at the City Council and now
chairs the city's Special Committee on the Water Crisis, which is set to
release its report after more than a year of investigation. Martin Pigeon
was invited by the Committee for an international conference [3] on the
water crisis in the city, and used the opportunity to interview him
(interpretation: Amanda Menezes L. de Castro).
Martin Pigeon: Renato Cinco, who are you?
Renato Cinco: My name is Renato Athayde Silva, "Cinco" (five) is a nickname
I received at school and I have made it my political name. I am an activist
of the revolutionary left, a socialist, a democrat and a libertarian. I
belong to Insurgencia, a Trotskyist political group within the PSOL
(Socialism and Liberty Party), we are part of the reunified Fourth
International (a transnational alliance of Trotskyist movements). I have
been an activist since my student years and recently I have been
particularly involved in the struggles against the prohibition of marijuana
in Rio. Our campaign for this has been to "stop the war on the poor": this
criminalisation makes criminal gangs prosper, at the expense of entire
neighbourhoods. I was elected to the City Council in 2012 in part thanks to
the vote of young people because I am known for this, but that also means
that the media tends to portray me only as a one-issue person.
Martin Pigeon: What gave you the idea to initiate this Special Commission
on the Water Crisis?
Renato Cinco: Before me there was no environmental activist on the City
Council. Environmental issues were always on the radar for my generation,
but were not necessarily seen as an emergency; there was not much action.
The dramatic ongoing water crisis in Sao Paulo caught my attention, in
particular because of the risks for political destabilisation that it
created. There were revolts, robberies... very quickly after water shortages
started. I discovered in the Spanish newspaper El Pais that the Brazilian
army had even organised exercises to seize control of the water system and,
basically, the whole city in case they would consider it necessary! That
tells you how serious the situation is. I started to publish posts on social
media calling for materials and testimonies on the situation, and I realised
quickly that this crisis had been announced for more than 10 years by
specialists but that nothing had been done.
In Rio, we are not there yet, although the perspective of water rationing is
lurking and there are many areas with very irregular supply, sometimes no
supply at all. The situation is not stable, but there is little information
available. So, this was a situation where while the army was preparing to
intervene, social movements seemed completely unaware of the danger. The
idea for this Special Commission was to gather knowledge and disseminate it,
inform people and plan ahead to try to avoid finding ourselves in the same
situation as in Sao Paulo. For example, what are the basic measures needed
to avert a humanitarian disaster in case of excessive water scarcity? Which
large users is it possible to shut off to preserve water supply to the
people?
Martin Pigeon: What are the main characteristics of the water crisis in
Rio?
Renato Cinco: I can think of four different aspects to it.
The first problem is inequalities in coverage. Large parts of the city have
been without water and sanitation for more than 10 years, especially in new
neighbourhoods that used to be in the countryside but that have been
included in the city due to its expansion. Water in these new neighbourhoods
still comes from the old wells but is now polluted and not at all fit for
human consumption. But the inequality is not only geographic, it is very
much social: while water reservoirs are in the North, residents don't get
much of it there as it first goes to the rich neighbourhoods in the South of
the city. And even in the South, inhabitants of the favelas (slums) that are
next to these rich neighbourhoods do not get access to water supply and
sanitation systems either.
The second problem is water leakage. Officially, Cedae (Rio's public water
company) declares a leakage rate of about 30 per cent, which is high, but we
do not know how reliable this figure is and it could very well be higher.
The third problem is the absence of transparency. Our own Committee has
struggled to access really basic information about water uses in the city.
Cedae told us that about 43 per cent of the water used in the city is for
industrial use, 16 per cent for mining and agriculture and 41 per cent for
"urban uses"; but what are "urban uses"? This combines domestic and
commercial uses, and we do not really know for instance how much is used by
large users such as big hotels and what is used for basic, domestic
consumption. We know that at the level of the state of Rio this is about 6
per cent only, while agriculture uses 70 per cent, but that includes a much
larger area.
Lastly, the city of Rio is a big consumer of water but not a producer. Our
supply comes mainly from the Rio Paraiba do Sul, which also supplies Sao
Paulo. This river is quite polluted and the fact that we share with Sao
Paulo leads to regular conflicts.
Martin Pigeon: Your party is in the municipal opposition while the current
city council is dominated by the PMDB. What are the priorities of the
political parties in power in Rio as far as water is concerned?
Renato Cinco: Privatise public companies and sell them to the companies
funding their political campaigns, in this case Odebrecht, a construction
company. [1]
Martin Pigeon: Isn't such a blunt description a bit excessive?
Renato Cinco: It is not! Parts of the network have already been privatised,
with a 30-year concession contract signed in 2012 with a company called Foz
Aguas 5; this company has a partnership with Odebrecht and the private water
company Aguas do Brasil. This contract deals with developing areas of the
city (Planning Area Five, which includes 21 districts of the West Zone in
the city of Rio de Janeiro) where there is a lot of construction work to do
to extend the network.
Now it happens that Odebrecht finances the political campaign of the
governor of the state of Rio, and the company's owner is now in jail after
having been investigated in the Petrobras corruption scandal. This is huge:
it's the first time in the history of Brazil that anything like this
happens. We will have elections in late 2016 here and for the first time
direct funding of political campaigns has been forbidden, only individuals
can contribute, with a cap... You know, this sort of deal is not uncommon in
Rio. You must have heard of the Maracana, one of the largest football
stadiums in the world. It was built and renovated with public money but it
got privatised in 2013 with a 30-year concession contract to... Odebrecht,
again, together with other companies.
Martin Pigeon: It looks like the most pressing need in the city is the
extension of the sanitation network but the cost of such works is typically
prohibitive, especially for a private company. How do they intend to
proceed, if at all?
Renato Cinco: Well, as far as Foz Aguas 5 is concerned they cannot indeed
recoup the cost of the works only with water tariffs so they're getting
public subsidies for that from the city. Also, their contract says that they
do not have to extend the network to favelas (slums). Sixteen per cent of
the population in the West Zone would have no access to the water supply
network, access to sanitation is certainly lower but this is the kind of
information that we could not access, even for the whole city. That said,
Cedae also receives public subsidies.
Martin Pigeon: Are there plans by the city to privatise the water and
sanitation networks also in the centre and in the south, where Rio's richest
neighbourhoods are located?
Renato Cinco: Not that I know of. The main interest of the company seems to
be subsidised construction projects more than managing these networks. This
also echoes a federal policy, actually: today, there are an estimated five
million homeless people in Brazil and six million empty apartments, but the
government only talks about building more of them.
Martin Pigeon: I was surprised that there was no representative of Cedae at
this international conference on the water crisis in Rio. Why was that?
Renato Cinco: This is because we had organised a hearing with them and the
Commission [on the Defense of Human Rights in the City Council] a few weeks
earlier, so this was to avoid a repetition.
Martin Pigeon: What did you learn during this hearing?
Renato Cinco: The discussion was not very interesting, unfortunately. Cedae
was very dismissive about any problem, did not answer properly to many of
our questions, said that basically everything was under control and that the
big construction works they were planning for the Paraibo system to increase
storage and supply capacity would alleviate possible concerns... Which we
know is not true--we also know their political masters prefer big new
construction projects to simpler ones because that enables bribes...
You know, Cedae is technically a public company but it is very entrenched.
Any social control of the company is very fragile for the moment: a lot
depends on the executive, on managers who are co-opted and appointed by the
usual ruling parties in Rio... The company is very much out of reach for us.
Martin Pigeon: What are your ideas to make the situation evolve for the
better?
Renato Cinco: This is difficult as the problem has so many dimensions and
there is only so much we can do at our level. First of all we would need to
stop wreaking the climate and this can only be done at the international
level, we all know how easy this is! Then at the national level we would
need to stop destroying the forest and start reforesting, and here too there
are very powerful interests--especially large-scale farming but also mining,
construction...--against us. Then at the local level we need to tackle
management shortcomings but also fundamental social and environmental
justice issues. It's very much a question of democracy.
You know, Brazil is miles away from the European welfare system, here we
have the "badfare" system! The dominant vision and priority is to intensify
capitalism, not fight it. Still water is an area where the contradictions of
this logic quickly become untenable; I hope the work and recommendations of
our Commission will be heard and make a difference for Rio's people.
* 1. According to Brazilian newspaper Estadao, this company would have
contributed [5] to two thirds of the PMDB's revenue in 2013, the rest being
mainly beverage companies.
Water [6]
Source URL:
http://corporateeurope.org/water/2016/07/brazil-new-government-imposes-rio-water-privatisation-pay-olympic-games
Links:
[1]
https://theintercept.com/2016/05/23/new-political-earthquake-in-brazil-is-it-now-time-for-media-outlets-to-call-this-a-coup/
[2]
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/17/rio-de-janeiro-financial-emergency-olympic-games-2016
[3] http://www.colapsohidrico.eco.br/
[4]
https://www.flickr.com/photos/carlbob/7869489482/in/photolist-cZpc49-nMoT1j-8N2xDo-rCzpHq-b3p814-nS1dkA-qaotkC-6viSYR-nVncj9-d9wq9Y-4vqjBp-4pMzSC-6X1SMM-71yrtn-8MPazf-5rHwLu-75iZTn-HGzAS-pUNnVx-cRc19d-nHZFqF-7DioHT-4pHAa2-boVu7C-74gk6J-e15CCj-74giCV-b6Gqpt-bJxPmn-5rHufu-6vo4zS-71yrpP-b3p7Tp-cZpcuL-nSw4Bx-4Fyqsv-taYQCW-8MPhzm-4FCzn7-cKTbP5-cHzErd-dWF8cY-4yExNZ-b3pfHV-HDMmPR-8MLdWK-8MKZnr-b3pdYV-8ML5hB-52PYKZ
[5]
http://politica.estadao.com.br/noticias/eleicoes,odebrecht-doa-23-da-receita-do-pmdb-imp-,1166378
[6] http://corporateeurope.org/environment/water
