Bangalore: More than 30 organisations, under the banner of Campaign Against Water Privatisation, staged a demonstration in front of the Krishnarajapuram City Municipal Council (CMC) office on Tuesday, protesting against the move to privatise water supply in urban local bodies. The protesters included organisations of women, students, Dalits, civil liberties and trade unions.

The seven CMCs and one Town Municipal Council around Bangalore come under the Rs 658-crore Greater Bangalore Water Supply and Sanitation Project (GBWASP), which seeks private participation in water distribution, and cost-based and some subsidised tariff components.

Those who lent their support to the protest included Sri Veerahadra Channamala Swami of Nedumamidi Mutt, former Planning Commission Member L.C. Jain, legislator Rama Reddy, Mavalli Shankar of Dalit Sangharsh Samithi (Ambedkar) and Sunanda Jayaram of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha.

"Water and air cannot be objects of profit, and any move to make the poor pay for water should be resisted," Mr Jain said. The organisers, who addressed the protestors, said: "Water pipelines have already been laid under the supervision of World Bank affiliates, such as the International Finance Corporation and agents of the international corporate sector, who advocate selling water. Schemes for water supply to slums in Bangalore already involve multinational agencies."

The organisers claimed that the Participatory Local Area Capital Expenditure agreement, signed by stakeholders such as the Directorate of Municipal Administration, the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board and the CMCs and TMC, has sections for privatising the operation and managing of the water supply to urban local bodies.

The quantity of free water, which the urban poor received so far, may be severely curtailed and eventually done away with, they said.

Ramesh Ramanathan, founder of Janaagraha, said that the organisation stood for wider consultation with regard to any revision of water tariff and had been assured by the Government that no unilateral decision will be taken in this regard.

A street play depicting how gradual privatisation of water supply will hit the poor living in slums, was staged by activist John Devaraj and his troupe.

Janaagraha threat

Janaagraha today said it will step out of coordinating the Jalamitra component of the GBWASP if State Government decides on privatisation without prior consultation with it.

Anchored by Janaagraha, Jalamitra is one of the components of the GBWASP, which calls for the involvement of citizens in many aspects of decision-making about the project.

In a statement, Janaagraha said that the three-tier Jalamitra structure for citizen participation, which includes elected representatives of municipalities, should be included in consultations before arriving at any decision on service options, including privatisation.

"To this end, Janaagraha has included clauses related to citizen participation in the memorandum of understanding that we had signed with the Government," the statement said.

Janaagraha, the statement said, is not a vendor in the Jalamitra project as it is not receiving any compensation from the project.

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