Water is a vital public utility not a private commodity for flush bankers

Water is the new oil. Mega-banks such as Goldman Sachs, CitiGroup and JP Morgan are buying up water resources, engineering infrastructure and water rights worldwide.

They know that, as water becomes more scarce with climate change and population growth, there are vast profits to be made. In addition, the lucrative potential of Big Data means Irish Water, as an asset, is far more valuable with PPS numbers attached than without. Not just water, but our identities are being commercialised without our consent.

Water is provided for free by nature and access to clean water and sanitation is recognized by the United Nations as essential to the realisation of all human rights. The privatisation of water transgresses all notions of natural justice and threatens ordinary citizens with withdrawal of a life-giving resource that nobody should ever have to live in fear of losing.

Privatisation of public services has repeatedly been shown to have disastrous consequences in terms of quality of service, workers’ rights and value for money. Many cities have reversed water privatisation due to inefficiency, profiteering and corruption. These include Paris, Buenos Aires and Kuala Lumpur. Meanwhile Detroit, the poorest city in the US because of the collapse of the car industry, is being described as facing a “humanitarian crisis”, as around 400 people per day are currently being cut off from water services because of inability to pay.

Any country where access to basic prerequisites of life can only be guaranteed to the wealthy is a failed society. We elect our politicians to run the country on our behalf, to distribute resources and to ensure a minimum acceptable standard of living for all citizens. In the perennial battle between ordinary citizens and the predatory, profit-seeking private corporations that seek to dominate and exploit us, we pay our politicians so we can be sure they are on our side or are they?

Maeve Halpin

Ranelagh

Dublin