WATER ABLAZE - Patagonia Sin Represas

states. However, with unemployment figures on the rise and the
subsequent loss of income, this situation could change very quickly
indeed. It would have been inconceivable only a short while ago
that the water supply network in a metropolis like London could fall
into such a state of decline after being privatised, that the Olympic
Committee had to consider this a drawback when judging London’s
application to stage the Olympic Games.
In any case, by selling its infrastructure, Stuttgart City Council has
made it more difficult to grant the franchise it allocated to EnBW, due
to expire in 2013, to any other supplier because this would have to go
hand in hand with an extensive transfer of ownership to the successor
– a real hurdle but one which could be taken. Were further EnBW
shares to be sold to foreign investment institutions or hedge funds, 25
however, the matter would become even more complicated.
Sooner or later, Stuttgart is going to feel the stranglehold of the
private operating company and will have to confront the big question
of how to regain possession of the supply networks and, above all, the
water supply itself. At present, there would seem to be two possibilities:
either by means of political majorities in favour of terminating the
privatisation contracts or via a local citizens’ referendum which, if
successful, could lead to remunicipalisation. We can only hope that
sufficient social forces will intervene and help to return the water
and energy supplies – as well as the shares in the special-purpose
associations – to local authority control.
In autumn 2006, discussions about the four largest German energy
companies RWE, E.ON, Vattenfall and EnBW livened up once
again. The German Minister of Economics Michael Glos (CSU), the
Hessian Minister of Economics Alois Rhiel (CDU), together with almost
all members of the state government of Baden-Württemberg and
Reinhard Löffler (CDU) from Stuttgart City Council, made a united
stand against excessive energy prices: the government had handed out
emission rights free of charge to the energy giants, thus presenting
them with gifts to the tune of billions of euros and now these were
being added on to customers’ bills as opportunity costs. Price controls,
which had only just been abandoned in Baden-Württemberg, would
110