[stop-imf] Taps run dry as prices soar in Tanzania water privatisation

[robert weissman]

Full report:
http://www.actionaid.org.uk/wps/content/documents/TurningofftheTAps.pdf

http://www.actionaid.org.uk/index.asp?page_id=3D1365

Taps run dry as prices soar in Tanzania water privatisation: urban poor
are neglected in World Bank project, says ActionAid

27 September 2004

Contact: tony durham
  * +44 (0)20 7561 7614
  * +44 (0)7753 973486
  * tonyd@actionaid.org.uk

paul collins
  * pcollins@actionaid.org.uk


City-dwellers in one of Africa=92s poorest countries have faced soaring
bills and mass disconnections since an international consortium, which
includes the British company Biwater, was put in charge of their water
supply.

According to a new report from the development charity ActionAid, water
privatisation in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam has neglected the
needs of poor people, despite the World Bank=92s assurances that access to
water for poor residents would be improved.

The report is published today as international development secretary
Hilary Benn prepares to confront the Bank with growing British doubts
about the use of aid to buy policy change. ActionAid says that in
Tanzania the Bank used the promise of a $143 million loan to push
through an inappropriate project in the face of public opposition.

Water bills have risen sharply - by 40 per cent according to one
estimate - since the Dar es Salaam Water and Sanitation Authority was
leased to a consortium called City Water, in 2003. The World Bank
expects prices to double eventually. ActionAid found that poor families
are turning to unsafe water supplies rather than pay the increased bills.

City Water, which is part-owned by the Surrey-based company Biwater,
disconnects whole areas in an attempt to get people with illegal
connections to pay up. In poor districts there is anger at the high
prices and poor service. ActionAid was told of water bill collectors
being chased away with dogs and knives.

"Donors have been pushing through a project in which 98% of the
investment will go to the areas where the richest 20% of the population
live," said Billy Abimbilla, director of ActionAid Tanzania. "This is a
project that was supposed to help the poor. The figures tell a different
story."

ActionAid believes it is time for donors to stop tying aid and debt
relief to risky and unproven economic reforms such as privatisation.

The report=92s main author Romilly Greenhill said: "The World Bank is
still lending money to developing country governments on condition that
they adopt specific economic policies such as privatisation. They make
it look as if the countries are privatising of their own free will, but
these are poor governments which can hardly walk away from a cheque for
$100 million. The UK=92s Department For International Development is
rethinking the conditions it attaches to aid. As the list of failed
privatisations gets longer, the World Bank also needs to ask why its
lending policies are not working for the poor."

Mr Benn will table his proposals for change at the World Bank=92s annual
meeting in Washington next month. A consultation paper, prepared with
the Treasury and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, heralds a
potential rethink of the British aid policies under which DFID spent
=A39.5 million supporting privatisation in Tanzania.