WATER ABLAZE - Patagonia Sin Represas

means. Matters concerning the general population must be made public
and citizens themselves must be allowed to decide whether or not a
referendum is admissible on a specific issue. This follows conclusively
from the principle of democracy, according to which the citizens of a
town or country are the highest authority.
The German market – especially the water sector – is an important
one for service companies because they hope to be able to conquer
foreign markets with the know-how and experience of domestic utilities
personnel. The example of Berlin shows us how this procedure works.
When the Berliner Wasserbetriebe (BWB) was partially privatised
in 1999 and the Berlinwasser Group or Berlinwasser Holding AG
subsequently came into being, a little “global player” was born.
The state of Berlin has a 50∙1 per-cent interest in the consortium and
RWE and Veolia together own 49∙9 per cent. Despite their minority
interest, these giants call the tune. Apart from supplying drinking
water to the city of Berlin, the Berlinwasser Holding is active in several
countries via its subsidiary Berlinwasser International.
w w w . b e r l i n e r - w a s s e r t i s c h . n e t (German)
10.7 The Remunicipalisation of Potsdam’s Water Supply
by David Hachfeld
Potsdam is the capital of the federal state of Brandenburg in Germany
and has a population of around 150,000. In 2000, not long after the
privatisation deal had taken place, the city remunicipalised its water
company. What led to this move Although this is an interesting case,
only very little has been written about it. On December 17, 1997,
Potsdam City Council decided to sell 49 per cent of shares in the
municipal water company Wasser Potsdam GmbH to Eurawasser, a
subsidiary of Suez and the German Thyssen Corporation, for the sum
of DM167 million (€85 million). In the months that followed, the
184