Greeks Stand Up to Protect Their Water From Privatization [View all]

[marmar]

from OnTheCommons.org:


Greeks Stand Up to Protect Their Water From Privatization
As foreign investors eye their public utilities, water workers scramble to create cooperatives

By Daniel Moss


Greece knows a thing or two about democracy. And as an increasingly arid nation, good water management is fundamental to its future, both political and physical. The recent financial crisis hasn’t only tested Greek democracy, but its water as well.

“You can tell if a society is democratic if its water is available to everyone, if it’s clean, and in public hands.” That’s how Kostas Marioglou sees it. When he’s not distributing water meters and pipes from a warehouse as with his job at EYATH ( Thessaloniki’s State Water Utility) he is a union leader and organizer for Initiative 136, a citizen’s initiative to buy the water utility from the Greek government.

Greece is under enormous pressure to privatize its water system. As the country drowns in debt, the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank (often referred to as the “troika”) work with eager Greek political parties to balance the books by selling off public water. Greece wouldn’t be the first place to privatize public water utilities during a fiscal crisis. Conditioning loans based on full or partial water privatization is an increasingly common practice of international lenders – and much criticized.

“Although the people’s message after two elections (6th of May and 17th of June) was clearly that of renegotiating the debt and the measures imposed by the Troika”, said Theodoros Karyotis, a member of Initiative 136, “the new government continues to apply the Troika program.” .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://onthecommons.org/magazine/greeks-stand-protect-their-water-privatization