Privatization v. Human Right

Sparks Fly at Water Conference in Boise

By John Yewell, 4-19-05

Maude Barlow, Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, came to Boise to argue for water as a human right. She clashed today with Patrick Cairo, Sr. Vice Pres. of Suez Environmental of North America, a French company and one of the largest water companies in the world. The two could agree on virtually nothing.

Barlow accused Suez of putting profits ahead of people in country after country in the Third World. "The best water in the world gets to people who can afford it, and those who can’t are being cut off," she said. She claimed that in Buenos Aires, water to the poor was cut off to the poor, sewage was dumped in the rivers, and prices increased beyond the ability of people’s ability to pay.

"What’s missing from this panel is a voice from the Third World. So even though I’m from Canada, I’ll have to be that voice."

Cairo disputed her point by point, responding that while it was true that the World Bank's model to make water systems fully sustainable doesn’t work as well as it should. His company, howeverm had taken a terrible system in 1994 and vastly improved it.

The mood at the conference seems generally pro-business, and pro-privatization, and most here seem willing to give Cairo and his company, Suez, the benefit of the doubt.

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