9th April 2006
Benn Supports Water Privatisation
An unlikely headline, and, no, it’s Tony and it’s not Britain. It’s Hilary and Nepal. Shocking it still is nonetheless. It is, after all, a Labour Government pushing water privatisation in a Third world dictatorship.
The Secretary of State for International Development confirmed to me in a PQ on the 30th March that Severn Trent Water International Ltd was the only bidder in a privatisation tender to run the water supply in the Kathmandu Valley from July 2006 – and so is certain to pick up the contract. Privatisation was a condition of the loan by the Asian Development Bank in which DFID is a major shareholder.
Is this the same Severn Trent found guilty by OFWAT last month of deliberately miscalculating accounts in order to overcharge customers and inflate profits, and that’s now the subject of a Serious Fraud Office investigation. If we find it difficult to prevent this company from ripping off the poor what hope is there in Nepal, with its abolutist monarchy, its terrible record of human rights abuses, repression and corruption. Shouldn’t we ask the ADB to back off this project until the restitution of democracy – as Norway and Sweden have already done. Time for a fatherly word of advice, maybe, Tony?
