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3/1/2002 - Water Meter Wars: Privatization, Protests and Renegade Plumbers by James G. Workman

ICWA LETTERS Since Institute Current World Affairs Crane Rogers Foundation provided fellowships enable outstanding young professionals outside United States write about international areas issues An exempt operating foundation endowed Charles R Crane Institute supported contributions minded individuals foundations TRUSTEES Joseph Battat Mary Lynne Bird Steven Butler William F Foote Kitty Hempstone Pramila Jayapal Peter Bird Martin Ann Mische Dasa Obereigner Paul A Rahe Carol Rose Chandler Rosenberger John Spencer Edmund Sutton Dirk J Vandewalle HONORARY TRUSTEES David Elliot David Hapgood Pat M Holt Edwin S Munger Richard H Nolte Albert Ravenholt Phillips Talbot Institute Current World Affairs The Crane Rogers Foundation Four West Wheelock Street Hanover New Hampshire 03755 U S A JGW SOUTH ASIA James Workman Donors Fellow Institute studying misuse accretion depletion fresh water supplies southern Africa Water Meter Wars Privatization Protests Renegade Plumbers By James G Workman MARCH ELSIES RIVER South Africa When I South Africa August seemed unlikely demand scarce water might urban unite widespread occasionally violent government protests decade If anything opposite seemed likely water excess Last winter wettest years Rains intense incessant blessing farms reservoirs industry nature curse people living poorly drained lowlands Runoff flooded people still overflow frustration If rains tonight tomorrow standing Mary Petersen Elsies River Water comes under doors spreads disease We complain never Still protest clouds Facing waterlogged nights Mary turned religion strength The Bible reveals deluge God Scripture teaches Job forbearance negligent landlords leaky walls Competition fresh clean water south Africa already intense Already undernourished beset water borne disease southern Africa population withstanding specter massive AIDS deaths jected double several decades It least amount water produce region least amount water spare The entire region depends utterly rainfall runoff water supply every major perennial river region shared nations So comes prise leaders opinion makers UN World Bank Brookings Institution predict violent water between within nations these years ahead I grown skeptical confident predictions I suaded dismal economic political about resource scarcity stress doesn apply fresh water least fresh water Africa Indeed opposite prove As I signs water appears drive species communities human natural closer together rather farther apart passively cratically gradually though seldom orderly Rather violence I suspect inter intra state negotiations discussions faith voluntary resolutions result competition Right I guess reason reasons would explore depth breadth years ICWA Fellow reminds shall inherit earth But shall inherit water The Bible fered answer question flood puddles evaporated water locked behind reservoirs Worse Sep tember Mary other Cape Fl dents received warnings eviction first since former apartheid enforced segregation These notices democratically elected multiracial govern penalizes unpaid water bills No longer aside Bible stitution For months spreading agitating politicians recruiting hundreds members Peace Justice P J pressure group forms pocket solidarity resistance calling apartheid water Cape Town water system emerge overnight nowhere rapidly substituted distant reser voirs local streams Consider Elsieskraal Black River longest tributary It rises slopes Plattekloof flows south toward In Elsies River irrigated farmland ports Industrial Areas people namesake stream remember Two still Petersen Lukas Scheepers As raindrops aluminum trickle gutters drains reach fondly recall growing shacks drawing informal wells stream To water carried shacks doesn compared indoor plumb But Mary Lukas preferred reliance dependence better health They resent apart European thinking improved 1950s social engineering segregated public introduction durable instrument called water meter There difference between Westernizing Modernizing Europeans grasp Scheepers His covered political pictures cluding shaking hands Nelson Mandela Now identifies himself trade unionist Coloured although I still means political arties organize community around securing water rights Peace Justice Europeans always Africa value They Gold Dia monds Copper Uranium They Now Africa water Rule water Africa I water white I He smiles Look finger I afford comes below Someday privatization everything seems sooner I afford water comes skies above Those skies release annual global average which refuses where people Most ubanites rural homes close rivers cities where dammed rivers piped close But Cape Town almost nowhere store After shallow Table Mountain reach beyond limits Steenbras Rig through WWII City drank washed showered boiled watered flushed million liters required water tioning hours Today million people inhabit districts Cape Town metropolitan consume million Tourists farms industry double demand summer months Industry affluence increases water demand percent billion liters years Whether streams running streams period Tapped doubling Cape banging against finite inflexible water supply For relief government encourages people wasting precious little Under apartheid coloureds person mixed white nonwhite descent INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS Discovering third drinkable household water flushed toilets another third waters still plain taken demand management gusto It educates conser vation turning while brushing teeth showering buckets using dishwater lawns voluntary campaigns universally ignored It threatens fines Rands U S terms washing hosing driveways watering lawns tween restrictions universally unenforceable As demand continues reaches grasp sharp temper inflaming unpredictable around decades largely neglected anything recovery water meter Turn right there again Mary Petersen leads school church apartments driving rutted roads paved ghost streams We angry people about their astronomically rising water bills leaky meters feeble flows Members P J afford water bills receivi readily Rand investment rather water lectors alone Most recruits women primary water users traditional water gatherers Some pension percent unemployed Few activists before eager learn Lukas Mary complain their people meaning Coloureds passive afraid disjointed brainwashed ernment We stand should We together It seems starting As people flock campaign I behind mobilization Man facing water cutoffs Gladys Her friend named Gladys vigorously They coming after water We going water The phrase I associate gloomy PhD candidates hydrologists UN officials World Bank ecutives Ismail Serageldin warned century fought water Even optimists concede decades world creased water consumption earth scrape percent water future reckoning In dozen officially water stressed hotspots reckoning arrived These include stable talist democracies Holland Poland Singapore South Korea UK which presumably engineer solution Middle Eastern autocracies Saudi Arabia Qatar Oman presumably costly desalination plants Uncertain outcomes await Israel Morocco Somalia Tan zania Rwanda South Africa With cubic kilometers total newable freshwater available South Africa shrinking slices In million people could consume cubic meters In million people daily slice cubic meters In decades conservative mates predict person cubic meters bathe drink clean flush In I afraid twenty years Lukas looking ahead scarcity I where heading trusting lives others other taking control ourselves They Now privatize water If I cutthroat there future children Many counter their future depends water privatization Their theory holds water prices artificially Facing finite supply expensive infrastructure market oriented structure prices As prices demand A steep sliding scale means wealthy liter subsidize It sounds clean A proponent group ranging grassroots ronmental groups conservative World Trade Organi zation officials claims simple market shift water meters succeed where previous carrots sticks failed So government moved forward raising prices But success hinges untested hypotheses water users government those The meter itself seems humble instrument placing nation symbol development The fulcrum power dials increase dependence state A priority Nelson Mandela African Na tional Congress ANC provide access fresh running water million lacked Africans females children hours spent gathering water study instead The ANC boasts hooked pipes since target another million Under South African Water Act access fresh water guaranteed right itself still comes price Each hooked comes water meter screwed relatively quick mechanical But simple initiates mysterious social contract breeds suspicion resentment In landscape facing water scarce competition meter becomes power facet state locked behind thick plastic increasing people dependence silent rotation dials Since water sanitation electricity historically South Africans contact their government meter proven cause friction Fighting apart 1980s early 1990s black Afri refused their water bills means political protest The National Party apartheid government chose disconnecting water pipes Eventually water seemed consumer revealed culture suppliers Today water meter friction governments accountable citizens citizens account governments The latter deems legitimate source civic income increased applied Mary Gladys I front demned house impoverished Uitsig cramped front Maybel McCarthy I handed FINAL NOTICE received Juliane Nel account 809304 It City Cape Town Tygerberg Administration right point rands water Council recently adopted Credit Control Debt Col lection Indigent policy result which strict speedy effective measures collecting rears amounts Council effected I Juliane Do With money There I I The Council reserves right discontinue delivery services defaulters prior notice Juliane seethes I I I waved notice their Man I water This reaction seems counter intuitive I Because women Uitsig about They stand That going exciting point waiting Especially women water clean They taken everything Now going water I I The government blind unsympathetic In brave gesture those could afford purchase minimal amounts South Africa Minister Forestry Water Affairs Ronnie Kasrils launched policy provide liters Free Basic Water urban rural The Free Basic Water amounts percent total supply But policy complicates water meter fulcrum First national government still The Black River Don water still demonstrate austere market orientation movement support rating strengthen currency tract foreign investment To emphasize precious valued scarce commodity Kasrils repeatedly affirms The culture payment advocated government Second undercuts strapped cities political fiscal brunt water payment collection City provincial governments opposition Democratic Alliance DA amalgam former apartheid National Party apartheid Democratic Party united opposition resents revenues basic water having blame cracking allowing national ANC assume ground Some claim ANC Free Basic Water policy triggered DA decision peoples water ANC voting areas The simply trying recoup Debt remains powerful municipal motive In Grahamstown Cape Province accounts local government R8 million million After weeks grace finance chair Pryaweaden Ranchhod vowed We washer enough sustain bodily functions dehydrate His humane approach In marginal areas Cape Flats water charge R125 connect Cities appear unable unwilling distinguish those those There houses Elsies River where unemployed people whose water months Mary Petersen I before I around The situation grown worse People medicine They bleeding sores They spread disease They function Poor maintenance mistrust meters readers I never meter It covered And I Maybel Juliane We complain wrongly billed billed leaks meters share meter whole block billed rands month How meter broken They check I think guess And poorest receive eviction notes Tafelsig Philipi Elsies River Mitchell Plain Khayalitcha Gugulethu Langa All these neighborhoods people water cutoffs isolated individual cases Failing point Council target entire communities payment Lastly Council compromise provide Free Ba Water appears simplistically flawed It calculated people household times times month allow kilolitres water meter That works several white friends living clear headwaters Liesbeek River spouse Rarely Rands But another former worker Dams Com ssion Phumla Yeki lives Langa family banks Black River sharing income water meter Her several rands month The occupant numbers reduce Free allotment liters person At Environmental Justice Networking Forum Salt River I spoke Thabang Ngcozela workers Zukiswa Pat Lunga Sidzumo Sibusiso Mini Each someone their water forced furniture government subsidized They ganizing resistance The whole concept process water meters foreign Thabang Many arrivals literate rural areas never water meter before They understand supposed Families emigrate drawn rivers On Liesbeek River still option Black The difference between those rivers clear water shown crude scientific terms coliform content European standards cells potable cells contact Where Table Mountain tributaries Liesbeek count cells I wouldn drink I could But where tributaries Black River count Further highway You drink splash river anywhere Not predictable health pacts The municipal government upgraded plant pollutes Black pressure Upgrades require collecting services overcoming culture payment Last tried start earning income function began serious about charging water lecting unpaid bills Thabang Water supposed great equalizer there appear distortions policy It anger Disease Restlessness Violence Walking through ghettoes dependent I dered I would water abruptly shower washer toilet I How might I Would I borrow cheat steal Sure But questions thetical When gather polluted Black River Others protest networks EJNF P J Most neighbors whose still And In Elsies River friendly neighbors invoice other their water Some charge recognizing water tradeable commodity expense solidarity I EJNF Thabang Zukiswa Lunga Ubuntu might Lukas rankled unity We Coloureds never considered white enough under apartheid black enough under ANC We caught middle divided against other In Bantu speaking black areas Gugulethu Langa reaction markedly different EJNF Zukiswa tells neighbors asked family after theirs Doing would double family bills water stress So I Did charge refuse All smile laugh white myopia Nei You never refuse You cannot answers Thabang You provide water I about difficult translate outlook Desmond Tutu celebrated ubuntu Xhosa giving African spirit togetherness generous darity facing difficulties I appreciate ubuntu I friction causes So I persist Don angry frustrated paying We resent Zukiswa reflects We other water taken coming water evict unpaid bills We might I wondered might desperate enter unarmed backed police impoverished chock toting gangs tradition vigilante justice necklacing burning tires lynch recent cases petty theft worse become forever identified pulled water supply families As water prices cheap You hated You recognized remembered It gerous earth matter govern worth providing water In other water stressed nation The water cutoffs illegal U K under privatization priestess Margaret Thatcher Lance Veotte organizing policy National Water Sector coordinator South Africa Municipal Work Union T property credit water You refuse services community matter That fight Last Spring friction mounted threatened water City Bill Tolken Hendrikse declined proposed collect bills Last September Thursday night answered City cials employed private contractors camouflaged ficial municipal workers clothing start shutting water homes The community identified blocked roads tires The police stood provide protection those closing valves removing meters The crowd angry chased police The police turned opened rubber bullets striking among others Luqmaan Ryklief City official Malcolm Newham explained connection encourage defaulters their accounts which overdue years Those could medication because water encouraged approach health depart would health inspector investigate recommend speedy reconnection Most bypassed City speedy reconnection matters their hands Says Veotte Many those disconnected worked plumbers someone tools They where pipes So tapped illegal connections called pinky pinkies The practice spreading linked commu empowerment I recruits P J their water Easy smiles Juliane I knyptang The pliers In bizarre futuristic movie Brazil Robert Deniro plays cameo antihero The compulsive repairman He rappels cables breaks fixes wiring other household problems without authority blessing wishes humili government departs minutes later I describe fictional character Danny Brown Mary Petersen nodding He connected hundreds people bringing tears their water flows again Though ployed money accepts other small gifts I imagine Robin Hood Elsies River stealing water giving He sounds I Mary smiles I Minutes later I shake hands athletic neatly dressed pressed slacks golden collar I trying people He tightens Nee Man That someone I I succeed Brown letter words often cites Bible He challenges government He produces ments contradicting embarrassing He chased those disconnect meters City Hall parked certain places block gging shutting deeper water valves beneath He hiding nothing knows legal right moral obligations They I stealing water I Brown served general secretary Congress South African Trade Unions following years political prisoner armed struggle overthrow apartheid People mouth They I their house Some those houses No tiles No windows No doors Blind people Sickness Poverty place stinks because their toilet water weeks The bloodsuckers I I You break change All antihero endeared City Council His water rates suddenly The police opened They finally caught charged formally tampering public resource fined rands which stung He No stepped accomplices relieved escape fines themselves So I Are retired I touch wrench I longer plumber fighting impish I teacher train dozens people others themselves The government stopped Mandela But teach others They lessons wrench spreading house house Brown The wrench trains Mary Gladys INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS Fellows their Activities Wendy Call May MEXICO A Healthy Societies Fellow Wendy spending years Mexico Isthmus Tehuantepec immersed contradictory trends attempt industrialize develop along proposed Caribbean Pacific containerized railway desire indigenous peoples preserve their Mexico remaining growth forests With B A Biology Oberlin Wendy worked communications coordinator Grassroots International national campaign director Infact corporate accountability organization Martha Farmelo April ARGENTINA A Georgetown graduate major psychology minor Spanish Master Public Affairs Woodrow Wilson School Princeton Martha Institute Suzanne Ecke McColl Fellow studying gender issues Argentina Married Argentine economist mother small focusing genders which immensely important Italo Latino machismo Martha involved Latin America professional having worked Catholic Relief Services Inter American Development Bank Costa Rica Human Rights Watch Ecuador Inter American Foundation El Salvador Uruguay UN World Conference Women Beijing Curt Gabrielson Decem EAST TIMOR With Missouri background MIT degree physics Curt spending years East Timor watching nation create education system ashes Indonesian system Since finishing MIT Curt focused delivering inexpensive culturally relevant hands science education minority income students Based Teacher Institute Exploratorium San Francisco worked youth teachers Beijing Tibet Mexican agricultural Watsonville California Peter Keller March CHILE Public affairs officer Redwood National Park planner Yosemite National Park before fellowship Peter holds B S Recreation Resource Management University Mon Masters Environmental Law Vermont Law School As John Miller Musser Memorial Forest Society Fellow spending years Chile Argentina comparing operation parks forest reserves controlled Chilean Argentine governments those controlled private persons governmental organizations Leena Khan April PAKISTAN A U S lawyer previously focused immigration Leena looking ranging strategies adopted women movement Pakistan starting earliest nationalist struggle independence present She exploring myths realities women living under Muslim Pakistan through women experiences identity religion customs implications activism Born Pakistan immersed Persian Urdu literature grandfather raised States holds B A North Carolina State University J D University San Diego Andrew D Rice May UGANDA A former staff writer New York Observer reporter Philadelphia Inquirer Washington Bureau Newsday Andrew pending years Uganda watching waiting reporting possibility anticipated African Renaissance might begin administration President Yoweri Musevene Andrew B A Government Georgetown minor Theology after having spent semester Charles University Prague where served intern Velvet magazine later traveled experienced wrote about conflict Balkans James G Workman January Southern Africa A policy strategist national restoration initiatives Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt Jamie ICWA Donors Fellow looking southern African nations South Africa Botswana Mozambique Zambia maybe Zimbabwe through their utilization conservation fresh water supplies A Yale graduate History spent junior Oxford Jamie journalism fellowship Poynter Institute Media Studies wrote New Republic Washington Busine Journal before years Babbitt Since served Senior Advisor World Commission Dams Cape Town South Africa ICWA Letters ISSN published Institute Current World Affairs Inc exempt operating foundation incorporated New York State offices located West Wheelock Street Hanover NH 03755 The letters provided charge members ICWA available libraries professional researchers subscription Phone E Mail ICWA valley Fax Web Site Executive Director Peter Bird Martin Program Assistant Brent Jacobson Publications Manager Ellen Kozak Institute Current World Af fairs The Crane Rogers Foundation The information contained lication reproduced writer permission Author Workman James G Title ICWA Letters Sub Saharan Africa ISSN Imprint Institute Current World Affairs Hanover NH Material Type Serial Language English Frequency Monthly Other Regions East Asia Mideast North Africa South Asia Europe Russia The Americas Institute Fellows chosen basis character previous experi promise They young professionals funded spend minimum years carrying designed programs study writing outside United States The Fellows required report their findings experiences field month They write subject formally informally The result unique reporting analysis periodic assessment interna tional events issues