Chile: Customers Protest Water Privatization http://www.insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2011/april/28/latinamerica11042802.htm

Citizen organizations in Chile announced a program of measures to avoid the total privatization of water by the enterprises in charge of water production and distribution in the nation.Edgardo Conteza, from the Movement for Consultation and Citizen Rights, said they plan to go to international institutions and do not discount taking a constitutional case to stop the government from getting rid of its shares in the main national sanitary companies.

Such a move would lead to the privatization of Aguas Andinas (Region Metropolitana), Esval (Valparaiso), Essbio (Bio Bio) and Essal (Los Lagos), responsible for potable water distribution, sanitation and decontamination. Consumers are afraid of the excessive increase of the prices in tariffs, besides other irregularities such as unjustified collecting and distribution cuts without compensation.This week, the Chamber of Deputies dedicated a special session to the serious situation presented by the province of Petorca, belonging to the central region of Valparaiso, because of the illegal use of water from the Ligua and Petrorca Rivers.

Independent deputy Rene Alinco said Chile is the only country in the world that has privatized its waters, and charged that unscrupulous entrepreneurs had built drainage channels improperly in the Ligua y Petorca rivers, and no one really accounts for such things.Communist deputy Lautaro Carmona said the neoliberal government has delivered private entrepreneurs a national natural resource like water, and that what is at stake is the recovery of water as a public resource. Parliamentary representative for the Party for Democracy Adriana Muñoz said water must be an essential human right for the life of the Chilean people.