CORPORADOS
CORPORADOS TRY TO PRIVATIZE WORLD'S WATER
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0322-06.htm
ANIL NETTO, INTER PRESS SERVICE -
Goaded by international financial institutions and corporate interests, regional governments are pressing ahead with plans for more private participation in water services. And yet all across Asia, water privatization schemes are failing to deliver clean and safe drinking water to communities, despite forcing consumers to pay for a basic human right. "If you look for a water privatization arrangement that works . . . I cannot think of any," Manila-based Mary Ann Manahan, a researcher with Focus on the Global South, told IPS in a telephone interview. In contrast, the sterling performance of some major publicly managed water utilities in Asia has demolished the argument that private sector participation is the only way to improve efficiency. Cities like Osaka, Phnom Penh and Penang, where water is publicly managed, have outperformed Jakarta and Manila, two cities with massive privatization arrangements in several key sectors. . . And yet, privatization schemes are being pushed with vigor by international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, coupled with lobby groups such as the Global Water Partnership and the World WaterCouncil.
In addition, the European Union has come up with initiatives in the World Trade Organization to pry open national water services to the big foreign players. Indeed, since the mid-1990s, developing countries have been coaxed to privatize water services through 'public-private partnership' or private sector participation. But many of these schemes in Asia have had disastrous results: soaring water tariffs, unmet targets, and crippling financial losses and debt.
PRIVATE HIGHWAYMEN ON THE PROWL
KEVIN FLYNN, ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS -
A state Senate committee on Tuesday effectively killed the Front Range Toll Road, striking down for now the private 85-mph "Super Slab" highway that developer Ray Wells envisions running 210 miles between Fort Collins and Pueblo. Lawmakers on the Senate Transportation Committee were greeted by about 750 angry but well-mannered protesters from the plains - many of whom arrived in a school bus convoy from towns such as Peyton, Calhan and Ellicott - and voted 6-1 to postpone House Bill 1030 indefinitely. That's General Assembly-speak for killing the bill. . . It was by far the largest crowd to come to the Capitol on a single bill in the living memories of numerous Statehouse old-timers. Organized in large part over the Internet in just the past three weeks, the crowd represented at least six of the seven counties through which Wells filed a 12-mile-wide, 210-mile-long claim for a superhighway corridor 20 years ago.
http://rockmountainnews.com
KRIS AXTMAN, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR —
For four generations, Clarence Friedrich's family has farmed the land in Fayette County, Texas. Like many Germans who settled the area in the 1800s, the family has an attachment to the land that runs deeper than corn or cattle. It's part of Mr. Friedrich's heritage, his story. But Texas is looking to the future, not the past, in developing a new transportation system that could slice up his 350 acres and countless farms like it.
The colossal $184-billion project would interlace the state with 4,000 miles of tolls roads — up to a quarter mile wide in some places — a Trans-Texas Corridor built entirely with private money.Planners of the Texas-size project cite a booming state population, bustling border business, and the promise of several million new jobs. But while many praise the project as a farsighted use of public-private partnership, others criticize it as a possible boondoggle that will steal revenue from small communities and affect landowners along three corridors crisscrossing the state. . . Gov. Rick Perry, who unveiled the plan in 2002, calls the Trans-Texas Corridor the most ambitious transportation plan since the creation of the interstate highway system in 1956. He says it will bring the state billions of dollars in revenue and much needed relief for overcrowded freeways — all with no taxpayer money. In December, the Spanish firm Cintra was selected to build the first segment, a 316-mile, $7.2 billion road east of Interstate 35 from San Antonio to Dallas. The firm will charge tolls for 50 years while renting the right-of-way from the state.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-03-22-texas-highway_x.htm?csp=34
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0322-06.htm
ANIL NETTO, INTER PRESS SERVICE -
Goaded by international financial institutions and corporate interests, regional governments are pressing ahead with plans for more private participation in water services. And yet all across Asia, water privatization schemes are failing to deliver clean and safe drinking water to communities, despite forcing consumers to pay for a basic human right. "If you look for a water privatization arrangement that works . . . I cannot think of any," Manila-based Mary Ann Manahan, a researcher with Focus on the Global South, told IPS in a telephone interview. In contrast, the sterling performance of some major publicly managed water utilities in Asia has demolished the argument that private sector participation is the only way to improve efficiency. Cities like Osaka, Phnom Penh and Penang, where water is publicly managed, have outperformed Jakarta and Manila, two cities with massive privatization arrangements in several key sectors. . . And yet, privatization schemes are being pushed with vigor by international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, coupled with lobby groups such as the Global Water Partnership and the World WaterCouncil.
In addition, the European Union has come up with initiatives in the World Trade Organization to pry open national water services to the big foreign players. Indeed, since the mid-1990s, developing countries have been coaxed to privatize water services through 'public-private partnership' or private sector participation. But many of these schemes in Asia have had disastrous results: soaring water tariffs, unmet targets, and crippling financial losses and debt.
PRIVATE HIGHWAYMEN ON THE PROWL
KEVIN FLYNN, ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS -
A state Senate committee on Tuesday effectively killed the Front Range Toll Road, striking down for now the private 85-mph "Super Slab" highway that developer Ray Wells envisions running 210 miles between Fort Collins and Pueblo. Lawmakers on the Senate Transportation Committee were greeted by about 750 angry but well-mannered protesters from the plains - many of whom arrived in a school bus convoy from towns such as Peyton, Calhan and Ellicott - and voted 6-1 to postpone House Bill 1030 indefinitely. That's General Assembly-speak for killing the bill. . . It was by far the largest crowd to come to the Capitol on a single bill in the living memories of numerous Statehouse old-timers. Organized in large part over the Internet in just the past three weeks, the crowd represented at least six of the seven counties through which Wells filed a 12-mile-wide, 210-mile-long claim for a superhighway corridor 20 years ago.
http://rockmountainnews.com
KRIS AXTMAN, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR —
For four generations, Clarence Friedrich's family has farmed the land in Fayette County, Texas. Like many Germans who settled the area in the 1800s, the family has an attachment to the land that runs deeper than corn or cattle. It's part of Mr. Friedrich's heritage, his story. But Texas is looking to the future, not the past, in developing a new transportation system that could slice up his 350 acres and countless farms like it.
The colossal $184-billion project would interlace the state with 4,000 miles of tolls roads — up to a quarter mile wide in some places — a Trans-Texas Corridor built entirely with private money.Planners of the Texas-size project cite a booming state population, bustling border business, and the promise of several million new jobs. But while many praise the project as a farsighted use of public-private partnership, others criticize it as a possible boondoggle that will steal revenue from small communities and affect landowners along three corridors crisscrossing the state. . . Gov. Rick Perry, who unveiled the plan in 2002, calls the Trans-Texas Corridor the most ambitious transportation plan since the creation of the interstate highway system in 1956. He says it will bring the state billions of dollars in revenue and much needed relief for overcrowded freeways — all with no taxpayer money. In December, the Spanish firm Cintra was selected to build the first segment, a 316-mile, $7.2 billion road east of Interstate 35 from San Antonio to Dallas. The firm will charge tolls for 50 years while renting the right-of-way from the state.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-03-22-texas-highway_x.htm?csp=34
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