Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
11
Water Treat
ment
On December 3, 1998, U.S. President Bill Clinton visited a water treat-
ment plant in Newport, R.I., to announce new measures that will
strengthen drinking water protection for at least 140 million Americans.
The new standards are a critical milestone on the path toward a new
model for solving complex, high-stakes environmental problems. Where
a comprehensive solution could be extremely costly and require essen-
tial information that is currently unavailable, the best approach may be
to make decisions in stages. The initial decision may be a commitment to
a process that will result in a comprehensive answer, starting with infor-
mation-gathering, analysis and research, and accompanied by a broad
set of consensus, “no regrets” actions. Under such a model, however, tak-
ing all the initial actions, as we have now done, is vital to sustaining the
good-faith commitment to complete the process. This is such a promis-
ing model that it is being applied to address the highly controversial
problems … and could have still broader applications. This one useful
step for safe drinking water could become a giant leap for protection of
public health and the environment.
—J. Charles Fox (1999)
Developing world cities with private water-management companies have
been plagued by lapses in service, soaring costs, corruption and worse. In
Manila, where the water system is controlled by Suez, San Francisco-based
Bechtel and the prominent Ayala family, water is only reliably available
for a few hours a day, and rate increases have been so severe that the poor-
est families must choose each month between paying for water and two
days' worth of food. In 2001 the government of Ghana agreed to privatise
local water systems as a condition for an IMF loan. To attract investors, the
government doubled water rates, setting off protests in a country where
the average annual income is less than $400 a year and the water bill (for
those fortunate enough to have running water) can run upwards of $110.
In Cochabamba, the third-largest city in Bolivia, water rates shot up by 35
per cent after a consortium led by Bechtel took over the city's water sys-
tem in 1999; some residents found themselves paying 20 per cent of their
income on water. An initial round of peaceful street protests led to riots in
which six people were killed. Eventually, the Bolivian government voided
Bechtel's contract and told the company's officials it could not guarantee
their safety if they stayed in town. Privatisation has also spawned protests
(and, in some cases, even dominated elections) in Paraguay, where police
turned water cannons on anti-privatisation protesters, Panama, Brazil,
Peru, Colombia, India, Pakistan, Hungary and South Africa.
—Jon R. Louma (2004)
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