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Anti-poverty protestors ‘clean up’ Severn Trent
15 March 2007
Kathmandu-based Gopal Siwakoti ‘Chintan’, coordinator of the Water and Energy Users' Federation-Nepal, today condemned Severn Trent Water International for failing to meet with him and anti-poverty campaigners from the World Development Movement.
Chintan - who was arrested and detained in February 2006 after speaking out on water privatisation and human rights issues in Kathmandu - said: “Severn Trent should listen to the people of Nepal and abandon their bid to privatise Kathmandu’s water management.
Protestors (at STWI head office at 2308 Coventry Road, Birmingham) dramatically costumed as cleaners in boiler suits and masks, today symbolically cleansed the overseas arm of the Midlands water utility calling for the company to end its role in the proposed private management of Kathmandu's water supply system.
"People in Nepal are against multinational companies taking over Nepal's drinking water supply. What Kathmandu needs is public investment in its water supply and management - to cut the 40% plus leakage rate and upgrade the water supply network served by the many small local rivers and springs and ponds," said Chintan.
"There are alternatives for public water management. The existing Nepal Water Supply Corporation (NWSC) has been saying in public that they have not been given any chance for reform and perform with autonomy from the government and they have all the will and capacity to manage Kathmandu water."
Tamsyn East, WDM's water campaigner said: "Water privatisation in Nepal has been a condition of aid from international donors, mainly the Asian Development Bank, and as a result, it has become a deeply controversial issue in Nepal. Time and again, we see that water privatisation in poor countries has failed to connect the poor to affordable drinking water. We have seen no evidence that this scheme will be any different."
"Severn Trent now needs to listen to the people of Nepal and sever ties with this project. It is time Severn Trent cleaned up its act." ENDS
See the google video of the protest
Nick Wright
Press officer
World Development Movement
66 Offley Road, London SW9 OLS
0207 820 4900
07711 875345
Email:
Information for editors
[1] The Asian Development Bank has made the privatisation of the management of Kathmandu’s water supply a condition for the granting of two loans with a combined value of US$15 million to fund the restructuring of Nepalese water institutions and the proposed management contract.
[2] The call for Severn Trent Water International to withdraw is backed by the Water and Energy Users' Federation-Nepal (WAFED); the Nepal Federation of Drinking Water Supply & Sanitation; the Consumers Interest Protection Forum; the NGO Federation of Nepal; the National Concerns Society and many others working together in a coalition.
[3] In February this year, the government of Guyana cancelled a five-year water management contract with Severn Trent Water International citing the company’s failure to meet five out of the seven objectives in the contract.
[4] WDM’s Dirty Aid, Dirty Water campaign highlights the failure of water privatisation projects to connect substantial numbers of poor people to affordable drinking water in developing countries. For more information on these issues, check out: www.wdm.org.uk/campaigns/water/index.htm
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