Argentina fires drinking water supplier

[Judi Lynn]

Argentina fires drinking water supplier
Mar 22, 2006, 19:45 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (UPI) -- Argentina ended its drinking water supply contract with Aguas Argentinas, a company partly owned by French utility Suez SA.

Aguas was supplying water to Buenos Aires, the government said the company failed to meet its contractual obligations and had reneged on its pledge to improve the quality of the water it supplied, the BBC reported Wednesday.

A new group called Aysa, which is 90 percent owned by the state and 10 percent by workers, will take over the contract.

Suez, which owns 40 percent of Aguas, had called for a 60-percent price rise to pay for infrastructure improvements, but the government offered 16 percent. That prompted Suez to say last year it wanted to pull out of Argentina for financial reasons.
(snip/)

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/business/article_1149311.php/Argentina_fires_drinking_water_supplier

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 21 March 2006, 20:07 GMT
Argentina severs Suez water deal

President Kirchner (right) refused to allow water price rises last year
Argentina has terminated its contract with Aguas Argentinas, a company partly owned by French utility group Suez, to supply drinking water to Buenos Aires.
The government said Aguas had failed to meet its contractual obligations and had reneged on its pledge to improve the quality of the water it supplied.

A new group called Aysa, which is 90% owned by the state and 10% by workers, will take over the contract.

The long-running saga has soured relations between France and Argentina.
(snip/...)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4830720.stm

[ronnykmarshall]

1. Don't Drink the Water, Argentina !!!

The truth is it tastes like ca-ca!!!!

[meganmonkey]

2. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!

NO corporate ownership of water!

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[shain from kane]

3. I've had tequila, but never a drink of Argentine firewater. n/t

[Blue_Tires]

4. you mean

privatization isn't he answer to all our dreams?

[NYC]

5. Big Water Companies Quit Poor Countries. Privatization Failing.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2181205

...Water privatisation was seen by the World Bank and G8 countries as the most effective way to bring clean water to large numbers of poor countries throughout the 1990s, but in spite of investments of $25bn (£14bn) between 1990 and 1997, the rich have mostly benefited at the expense of the poor. Sub-Saharan Africa has received less than 1% of all the money invested in water supplies by private companies in the last 10 years.

[lovuian]

6. Privatization is going to fail when it has to be a staple for the

people!!!

People realize they need water to live...

[NYC]

8. Many months ago, maybe a year, I saw a picture of an African man

standing beside his fresh drinking water meter. He did not have the money to put into it, so he did not have fresh drinking water.

I knew that privatization of drinking water would be a disaster for the people, and my biggest fear was that they would do it here. If it fails in other countries, I think we have some hope of preventing it here.

Azurix (an ENRON company) tried to privatize some water in Florida a few years ago.

Enron unit tried for water privatization in Florida
Michael Pollock & Chris Davis, Herald-Tribune (SW Florida)
March 2002

While Jeb Bush was running for Florida's governor in the summer of 1998, Enron Corp., a fast-growing Houston energy broker, was diversifying into a potentially lucrative new field - privatization of water supplies.

Even as Bush's secretary for the Department of Environmental Protection was settling into his office in February 1999, top executives of Enron's new water venture, Azurix Corp., were seeking audiences with the new governor and his DEP chief David Struhs.

Although Bush generally kept his distance from Azurix, his man Struhs stood on the sidelines like a cheerleader throughout Enron-Azurix's unsuccessful two-year attempt to privatize Florida's water market.

Struhs promoted two ideas near and dear to Azurix: auctioning off blocks of water to the highest bidder, and boosting underground water and storing it there for later withdrawal, a process called aquifer storage and recovery, or ASR.

By May 2001, as Enron was getting ready to junk Azurix and sell it for its parts, Struhs cooled on ASR, citing concerns by environmentalists and legislators.

Enron's attempt to duplicate its success in energy brokerage with a free-market approach to water resulted in $900 million in Azurix debt - a factor in Enron's decision to seek protection from creditors in bankruptcy court...

http://www.afn.org/~iguana/archives/2002_03/20020314.html

[K-W]

7. Great news. EOM

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. Mmm. Suez....