WATER ABLAZE - Patagonia Sin Represas

and international level and in the sell-out of public assets. Even the
Red-Green coalition government was not willing to break with the
privatisation doctrine of its Christian Democratic-Liberal predecessor.
On February 26, 2004, ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder made a speech
before the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, in which he reduced
the neoliberal creed to a concise formula by stating that: “Free world
trade provides decisive impulses for growth and employment. That
is why we are in favour of liberalising the trade in commodities and
services even further.”
Other German politicians can be heard singing from the same
hymn sheet. Dr. Uschi Eid, former Green permanent secretary in the
Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), did her
utmost during the Red-Green period of office to smooth the way for
German corporate interests worldwide, using the ministry’s apparatus,
e.g. with the assistance of the GTZ. She is extremely interested in “the
participation of private enterprise”: “We are aware that this is where
considerable business opportunities lie. [...] At the same time, you and
I both know that this in itself has not been enough to allow German
companies to be successful when tendering offers for large contracts
at international level, that is, to win the actual contract. This I find
highly regrettable.” 56
The Red-Green government had its sights on water supplies for other
reasons, too. In March 2002, following a Bundestag resolution earlier
that year, 57 it presented its Suggestions for the Modernisation of the
German Water Industry and for Greater International Involvement by
the German Water Industry. 58 In the report, the Ministry of Economics
spoke out in favour of a “reallocation and consolidation” of the more
than 6,000 national water utilities – whose subdivisional structure had
always been a thorn in the flesh of the big corporations – and called for
the establishing of powerful enterprises which would be able to defy
the global players in the water market.
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