| FRANCE: REVOLT
IN THE BIRTHPLACE OF WATER PRIVATIZATION
In cities around France, the revolt against powerful
water companies is growing. The protest is rooted
in several proven cases of corruption and illegally
elevated water rates.
GRENOBLE: OVERCHARGING
CUSTOMERS
The city of Grenoble ran one of the country’s
best public water utilities for a hundred years.
That was until 1989 when the French water company
Suez made Grenoble’s mayor, Alain Carignon,
an offer he couldn’t refuse. In exchange for
contracting out the city’s water network,
Suez helped finance Carignon’s mayoral election
campaign. For his part in the deal, Carignon went
to jail.
In 1999, a court concluded that Suez
had fraudulently overcharged its customers in Grenoble
for years to recover the cost of the takeover. Raymond
Avrillier led a citizens’ protest against
the private water deal.
Raymond Avrillier:
What happened at the time of
the privatization in 1989 is what happens in all
the French-style privatizations when public utilities
are out-sourced, in French cities and foreign ones.
There’s a huge increase in prices.
Grenoble took back its water utility
in 1999. Their water fees dropped dramatically and
are now among the lowest in France.
TOULOUSE: HIDDEN
TAXES
In Toulouse, artist Anne Bouzinac is using Jacques
Michel’s advice to fight for the return of
that city’s water utility to public ownership.
She is president of the local “Eau Secours”
a network of anti-water privatization groups around
the country.
The operation of Toulouse’s
water utility was handed over to Générale
des Eaux (Veolia) in 1990. In September 2003 Eau Secours,
along with individual customers, filed complaints
with the Tribunal Administrative de Toulouse claiming
that the company was overcharging. The plaintiffs
said the upfront fee the company paid for the concession
was being clawed back as an illegal, hidden tax on
the water customers. Anne
Bouzinac: Our goal here
in Toulouse is the return to a public service. Because
you have to realize the official figures show that
the cost of a publicly owned service is, on average,
twenty per cent lower than a contracted out service
CASTRE: QUESTIONABLE
ACCOUNTING
In Castre, a small city east of Toulouse, there
is another citizens’ protest movement over
water rates. Their complaint is a common one - questionable
accounting that results in what they consider price
gouging. Castre’s water was privatized in
1991 through a 30-year concession to Suez Lyonnaise
des Eaux.
After a tribunal concluded that Castre’s
water rates were illegally high, Castre mayor Pascal
Bugis and his council voted to cancel its contract
with Suez in June 2003. The transfer back to the
city is set to happen in spring 2004. There is still
a debate over whether Suez should repay the users
for the money it overcharged them.
This citizen and protest organizer
explains. “We’ve
seen the company’s methods and we don’t
want it to stay here and continue to do what it’s
doing, while it more or less hides its practices.
We would prefer a return to a public service.”
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