WATER ABLAZE - Patagonia Sin Represas

not need to be reintroduced but the monopolies commission should
be granted greater powers to monitor the situation. The politicians recommended
that customers change their supplier and only pay higher
prices if the company had proven these to be appropriate. Here we
have politicians who have been selling off public property for years
- resulting in this lamentable loss of power - publicly displaying their
indignation at the exorbitant energy prices which they themselves are
jointly responsible for.
The Mayor of Stuttgart, Wolfgang Schuster, whose praises have been
sung over and over again in economic journals, is an extremely astute
master of the art of demagogic thimblerigging. (This refers normally to
a sleight-of-hand game where you have to guess under which of three
thimbles or shells a pellet is hidden!) Speaking at the annual general
meeting of the BWV in November 2006 – having himself sold off the
city’s water supply as well as municipal shares in the special-purpose
associations – he said that he was against the privatisation of the water
market because the distribution of water from Lake Constance via the
special-purpose association supported by towns and villages, was both
practical and efficient. 26
Finally, on the city’s homepage, the public are being completely
and thoroughly misled. Under the heading “Drinking Water in
Stuttgart”, claims are made that: “As far as pricing water is concerned,
EnBW is not free to do as it pleases. Because we cannot choose our supplier,
we have laws which stipulate that prices cannot simply be raised at will.
Those companies which operate water supplies set their prices according to
the break-even principle. They are not permitted to maximise their profits
and are only allowed to charge for expenses actually incurred.”
You do not need to have studied law, administrative leadership and
international economic policy, like Schuster has, to recognise that these
assertions are anything but the truth. EnBW boss Claassen is proud
that his company was able to announce record profits of more than
€1 billion in 2005. In its annual business report it says: “We intend to
become the competitor with the highest relative earning power in the
industry.” In other words: EnBW cannot possibly function according to
the break-even principle, as a local authority utility does. Instead, its
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