The Philippines: a victim of fraud companies or of the North-South Divide?
Water priced too high is a phenomenon that happens everywhere in Metro Manila. Indeed, the World Bank has made list of other facts that occurred in Philippines. For instance, Nestle’s mineral water plant in San Pablo City is being blamed by local residents and farmers for the declining freshwater availability. The fraud of some companies don't stop here: over 35 business and commercial establishments in Metro Manila have been reported to be illegally extracting water from deep-wells (aquifers). This contributes to the drying up of the water and the sinking of the land in many areas.
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One of the best examples of a disastrous privatisation operation is the case of Cochabamba, Bolivia, privatised by our western halve owner Bechtel. The Bolivian village lies in the semidesert, making water a scarred resource for the population. In 1999, under World Bank's recommendations, the community allowed privatisation to Bechtel. But in a small amount of time, water bill reached $20 in a city where the minimum wage is less than $100 a month. Some of the poorest families were literally forced to choose between food and water. Responses to those changes were violent. As the government's promises to change this situation were not made, a peaceful march was made by the villagers against Bechtel. The government, determined to keep the silence of this affair, arrested or killed the pacific protesters and censored all medias. Bechtel finally left Bolivia, but under the tragic circumstances of three protesters killed, including a 17 year old boy.
Still, those water companies should not be seen as criminals, as they are trying to do their task. The constructions of a technically developed and clean water system demands extremely costly prices. The rise of water prices is justified by the financial needs or the water companies, as their only money entries comes from the buyers of water: in this case, Philippines population.
Water supplies has made significant improvements in the region of metro manila, concerning:
Water supplies has made significant improvements in the region of metro manila, concerning:
- Access (access to piped water has increased from 67 percent in 1997 to 86 percent in 2006 in West Manila, and doubled in East Manila: 3 million people to 6.1 million people)
- Time (the share of customers that enjoy 24-hour water supply has passed from 32 percent in 2007 to 71 percent in early 2011 in West Manila and from 26 percent to more than 98 percent in East Manila)
- Waste (non-revenue water was reduced from 69 percent in 2002 to 47 percent in West Manila, and 63 percent to 16 percent in east Manila).
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But the effectiveness of privatisation doesn't equals the financial sacrifice it demands to philippines population. This is shown when we compare cities in philippines to other 10 resembling asian cities: Manila and Cebu are one of the costliest water cities (8th and 9th place), although Philippines GDP, compared to the other asian countries, has one of the lowest (10th place with 3677 $ per year, in front of Vietnam and India).
Water price is too high compared to how people could afford it. Privatisation, although it improved water supplies and sanitation more than any philippines government policies had ever did before, has also reinforce poverty and inequality which was already highly present in the country.
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“The wars of the next century will be about water.”
Ismail Serageldin-President of the World Bank , 1999.
The Philippines is not the only Southern country under privatization. Indeed, South Africa, Chile, Bolivia, Indonesia, Israel and a lot more... have also been facing the same problems of inequality and costly water. Those emerging countries are victims of the globalization policies of privatisation. In northern countries, average peoples can easily afford costly water and secure and developed water distribution, whereas southern countries populations are not rich enough yet to afford the water prices set by the water companies.