Ethnos.gr reports that 51 per cent of the shares of the water utility EYATH will be sold to a private investor by October. “The first phase of the sale begins next month and the objective is to sell the remaining 24 per cent of EYATH at a later time.”
The news report also notes, “MP Dimaratos Asimina Xirotiri says, ‘We are opposed to this privatization’, while MP Nadia Valavanis argued that 25 years international experience shows that privatization of water has completely failed.”
The article (in Greek) can be read at http://www.ethnos.gr/article.asp?catid=22770&subid=2&pubid=63771635.
As previously noted in our campaign blogs, the government of Greece is set to fully privatize EYDAP and EYATH, the Athens and Thessaloniki water and sewage companies. The Greek news service Ekathimerini reports, “Until recently the two companies were to have only a part of their state stakes sold…” 27.3 percent of the Athens utility was to be sold, as was 40 percent of the Thessaloniki water utility. But it is now being reported that, “With the appointment of consultants for their sale, this points to a full privatization.”
In March 2012, the Blue Planet Project expressed its solidarity with Greek activists opposing these privatizations, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=14187. Following that, a report on the impact of austerity measures on the human right to water was produced collectively by groups in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Bulgaria in collaboration with the Blue Planet Project. To read that report, go to http://www.blueplanetproject.net/documents/RTW/RTW-Europe-1.pdf.
For more information, please see the Facebook page ‘Σωστε Το Νερο Απο Την Ιδιωτικοποιηση’ (Save Greek Water from Privatization) at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Save-Greek-Water-from-Privatization or go to the website, http://savegreekwater.org.
