Veolia is also an international transportation company which took over the
buses in Nassau County, Long Island.
Miriam
Flint-Linked Veolia Merger Brings Water Privatization Closer to Global
Reality
This lack of competition will lead to unaffordable costs for families,
slack maintenance and safety procedures, loss of union jobs, and potentially
rampant corruption. Food and Water Watch
by Alan Macleod
October 07th, 2020
By Alan Macleod
Veolia, one of the worlds largest private water corporations, has just
announced the acquisition of 29.9 percent of Suez Water, another of the
planets largest multinationals, with a plan to gain full control at a later
date.
Based in France, Veolia already employs nearly 100,000 people worldwide, and
this deal is set to greatly expand that. In order to get around French
anti-monopoly laws, Suez will continue to operate in France, but Veolia will
take over its operations around the world, including in the United States.
The companys CEO, Antoine Frérot, has presented the move as a triumph for
the environment. I am very happy to lay the foundation stone in France
today for a world super champion of the ecological transformation, he said,
adding that this was a wonderful opportunity for both investors and the
planet.
Others were not so sure this takeover was such a positive move. Activist
group Food and Water Watch decried the deal. Veolias global domination of
public water services is becoming a terrifying reality, wrote its Public
Water for All Campaign Director Mary Grant, warning of a host of negative
consequences for humanity at large.
The merger of the worlds largest water corporations will erode any
semblance of competition for water privatization deals. This lack of
competition will lead to unaffordable costs for families, slack maintenance
and safety procedures, loss of union jobs, and potentially rampant
corruption. Water privatization has been a disaster for communities across
the United States and around the world.
Lead seems to be a problem, do not pass this on
The water and waste management firm is perhaps best known in the United
States in connection to the Flint water crisis (2014-present), where it was
employed in a number of lucrative roles by the city. While much of the
public outrage has been directed at local and national officials, many in
Flint blame Veolia for its alleged reckless disregard for their lives. In
2016, Michigan residents sued the company, accusing it of professional
negligence, a charge Veolia called outrageous, claiming that people are
trying to create a corporate villain where one does not exist.
However, last year, leaked email exchanges show that senior employees knew
about the dangerous levels of lead and other carcinogens in the water but
did not go public with the information. As a result, months passed before
the city was forced to admit there was a deadly problem. The emails,
published by The Guardian, are explicit, with officials communicating that
lead seems to be a problem and instructing others, do not pass this
[information] on.
In general, allowing private corporations to control water supplies has not
been beneficial for local populations. For example, in the United Kingdom,
water was privatized in 1989, with the cost of water to the consumer
increasing at 40 percent above inflation ever since. Shareholders received
$17.5 billion in dividends between 2010 and 2019, but the companies refuse
to plug leaks that spill over 650 million gallons every year. As a result,
the United Kingdom a notoriously wet collection of islands is facing a
water shortage by 2045.
In 1997 the World Bank strong-armed Bolivia into privatizing its water
system as a condition of a loan agreement. Almost overnight, prices soared.
A water and sewer connection for a single household cost $445 in El Alto,
where many residents earned less than $2 per day. Nevertheless, private
companies managed to get the government to pass laws banning the collection
of rainwater. The result was mass thirst, and anger that spilled over into
the streets and set the tone for two decades of radical politics in the
country, especially after U.S. corporation Bechtel sued the country for $25
million for canceling its municipal contract with them.
The United Nations recognizes the right to water and sanitation as a
fundamental human right. Yet when the profit motive is injected into the
equation, and it is treated as a commodity to be bought and sold, those
without the ability to pay often miss out. Food and Water watch
categorically warns against privatization.
As the fiscal realities of the COVID crisis begin to set in for struggling
municipalities, some may consider selling off their valuable water systems
as a short-term solution. But this would create long-term harm. Communities
must revert all privatized water and sewer systems to public control to
ensure safety and affordability for all, Grant added.
