“Supply of water is a human right, it cannot be leased out. Supply water is the responsibility of the government.” – Rajinder Sachar, Water Privatisation-Commercialisation Resistance Committee
The Hindu reports, “Even as the Delhi administration is getting ready to implement public private partnership model in water distribution in three areas of the city, a protest against the decision is all set to spill on to the streets. The members of the Water Privatisation-Commercialisation Resistance Committee (WPCRC) have slammed the government for trying to privatise water supply and cautioned that unless the government rolls back the initiatives, the protests will be intensified across the city.”
“(Former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court) Rajinder Sachar criticised the government’s decision to bring in PPP in water distribution and questioned the terms at which the companies are being given the contracts for running the projects. …Mr. Justice Sachar also questioned the existing billing pattern and said consumers are being charged twice as much for ‘service charges’ than for the actual consumption.”
In late-March 2011, Agence France Presse reported, “More than one billion urban residents will face serious water shortages by 2050 as climate change worsens effects of urbanization, (says) a study (published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). The study found that (those affected) will live with less than 100 litres each day of water each — roughly the amount that fills a personal bathtub — which the authors considered the daily minimum. India’s six biggest cities — Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad — are among those most affected by water shortages.”
The Hindu news article is at http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/privatisation-of-water-supply-in-delhi-opposed/article3960536.ece.
