Activists: Firms getting rich off of selling water
By Guillermina Guillen, El Universal
One of the first things tourists learn when they come to
Mexico is
"don't drink the water."
However, local authorities say the capital's water supply
is fit for human consumption and the widespread belief among both tourists and
locals is fueling the nation's lucrative bottled water industry.
Worldwide,
Mexico is the
second largest consumer of bottled water, and activists are concerned the
precious resource is quietly being privatized.
In the 1990s authorities increased the chlorine content in
drinking water as a safety measure following a cholera outbreak across
Latin America that killed 552 Mexicans. The resulting
unpleasant taste spurred a jump in the consumption of bottled water, and has
given an edge to private companies.
"We are facing a silent process of privatization. As a
foreigner, I ask if I can drink tap water in
Mexico, and
everybody says no, so I buy it," said Costa Rican Javier Bogantes, director of
the Latin American Water Board which argues that water is a human right and
should not be privatized.
"I doubt that there is a public entity that could supply
water to the entire population in
Mexico," he
said.
Although the government calls the resource a matter of
national security, in recent years multinational companies such as Coca Cola,
Pepsi, Danone and Nestle have been taking over the job of supplying the
population, for a price.
"If a population of 24 million people (the metropolitan
area of Mexico City) is supplied
entirely by bottled water, that's a big business that can make enormous
profits," said Bogantes.
"It is important that communities defend their right to
this vital liquid, and demand that the government comply with its obligation to
supply water to everyone," he added.
Armando Monroy Hermosillo, director of biological and
health science at the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM), accuses the
local government of failing to adequately inform the public that much of the
water coming through the faucet is safe to drink. This lack of information
pushes people to buy bottled water.
Water rights are the focus of increasing attention
internationally. In global comparisons,
Mexico is the
only Latin American country that depends primarily on bottled water. Its
residents drink 170 liters annually per capita, or 5.6 billion
liters.
Worldwide,
Italy tops the
list with 183 liters per person. After
Mexico, nations
that consume the most bottled water per capita are the
United Arab
Emirates,
Luxemburg,
France,
Spain,
Germany,
Lebanon,
Cypress, and the
United
States.
In Spain, the Consumer Action Federation (Facua) recently
demanded the Health Ministry cease promoting some brands of bottled water that
were marketed as "miraculous tonics" because they "create unfair competition for
tap water."
In 2002, Spaniards consumed more than 4.5 million liters of
bottled water, equivalent to 136 liters per person, according to the Beverage
Marketing Corporation.
"If people pay for water service in their home, the
government should commit to delivering a high-quality resource, instead of
helping to make private companies rich," said Monroy. "If we are willing to pay
seven pesos for a bottle, why wouldn't we be willing to pay the real price of
the water that flows through our pipes?"
Alejandra Serrano Pavón, an attorney with the
non-governmental Mexican
Environmental
Rights
Center (Cemda A.C.), said that the
process of privatization has been tacitly endorsed by the director of the
National Water Commission, Cristóbal Jaime Jáquez, who previously worked in the
sector.
She said there are no legal impediments to handing the
resource over to private initiative under Mexican law. However, she said that
international law defines access to water as a human right.
Community groups against the privatization of water
resources are preparing for mobilizations in the lead-up to the Fourth Global
Water Forum which
Mexico will host
in March of 2006, Serrano added
Sources: El Universal
|
The Water Connoisseur
