{"id":35613,"date":"2017-03-26T09:25:05","date_gmt":"2017-03-26T12:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=35613"},"modified":"2024-03-22T16:28:15","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T19:28:15","slug":"rio-engineers-and-representatives-criticize-water-utility-privatization-at-roundtable-on-world-water-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=35613","title":{"rendered":"Rio Engineers and Representatives Criticize Water Utility Privatization at Roundtable on World Water Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Wednesday, March 22 marked World Water Day<\/a>. With the support of the Engineers and Architects Society of the State of Rio de Janeiro (SEAERJ<\/a>) and NGO\u00a0Ba\u00eda Viva<\/a>, the Engineering Club<\/a> took this day as an opportunity to discuss alternatives to\u00a0the\u00a0privatization<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0CEDAE<\/a>, the\u00a0State Water and Sewerage Company. Counsellors, CEDAE employees, engineering students and others were among the audience of the event<\/a> titled \u201cAlternatives for sanitation vs.\u00a0the privatization of CEDAE<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The roundtable took place at the Engineering Club and included state representatives Paulo Ramos (PSOL<\/a>), Luiz Paulo Corr\u00eaa da Rocha (PSDB<\/a>), Dr. Glaucio Julianelli (PSOL), S\u00e9rgio Ricardo (Founder of Ba\u00eda Viva), and Nilo Ov\u00eddio Lima Passos (President of SEAERJ). Jos\u00e9 Stelberto Soares, an advisor of the Engineering Club and sanitation\u00a0engineer, acted as moderator.<\/p>\n

The event was opened by Sebasti\u00e3o Soares (first Vice-President of the Engineering Club<\/a>), who presented the positioning of the Engineering Club through a written statement, approved by its\u00a0Board of Directors. Among others, the statement affirmed the Club\u2019s stance that water needs to remain a public and universal service<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat matters to the society is that the provided service is universal<\/a>, of good quality and with modest tariffs<\/a>, which requires the existence of regulatory agencies whose members are chosen critically and that count with the participation<\/a> of civil society representatives, especially end-users. That way, an effective and transparent control<\/a> of the services can be guaranteed, mainly with regards to coverage and quality…<\/p>\n

Ensuring the provision of public service, with effective social control and\u00a0transparency<\/a>, and provided that the interests of the concessionaire do not prevail over services to its users, it is important that the company is of national capital, in order to avoid the creation of\u00a0a deficit in the balance of payments, since the provision of public services generates results only in reais.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Despite the event’s aim being the\u00a0search for alternatives to CEDAE\u2019s imminent privatization<\/a>, Paulo Ramos argued that they \u201cwere not going to discuss alternatives [since] CEDAE is the only option,” adding that CEDAE has a symbolic character for the people of Rio.<\/p>\n

Luiz Paulo Corr\u00eaa da Rocha pointed out that what is currently at stake is a privatization<\/em>, which refers to\u00a0physical assets being sold<\/a>, such as the subterranean infrastructure and treatment stations, and which is different from a concession<\/em> (where the private company operates the services and makes new investments<\/a> to increase efficiency). Corr\u00eaa da Rocha criticized the privatization as it would take away investment and thus slow down the development of the water and sanitation sector.<\/p>\n

Further, the state representative lamented that the government seemed to have made this far-reaching decision without possessing proper knowledge on what this could lead to, leaving many questions unanswered: \u201cWho will be responsible for production? What is the value of the assets? What are the investment goals for universalization?\u201d<\/p>\n

Also focusing on longer-term developments, Julianelli explained that several major changes will be indispensable in the Brazilian sanitation sector over the next years, which will involve disputes over water, mainly with the adjacent state of S\u00e3o Paulo. \u201cThis negotiation, this presentation of the interests of Rio de Janeiro\u2019s citizens, needs to be conducted by a state company, the state government of Rio de Janeiro,\u201d he argued. This was complemented by his argument that CEDAE has accumulated a vast amount of knowledge and experience during its several decades of activity.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the midst of a heated debate, and in light of the profit-driven characteristic of a private company, Julianelli expressed that he \u201cfailed to see how the communities of Rio de Janeiro, the poorest communities, will be served<\/a>.\u201d He added that it would not be worth it for the company and \u201csince they act as the only company for water supply, they also have no competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sergio Ricardo echoed this and expects an increase in Rio\u2019s already high<\/a> inequality<\/a>\u00a0as a consequence of the privatization. Further, he pointed out, by aiming to\u00a0privatize numerous sanitation companies<\/a>, Brazil is running counter to the global trend of the past decade, where over 200 cities are de-privatizing<\/a>. Yet, \u201ccurrently there are R$500 billion\u00a0available in the federal government for sanitation<\/a>,\u201d which Ricardo\u00a0proposed could be invested for instance in partnerships between CEDAE and the municipalities.<\/p>\n

Reminding the audience that Brazil is still far from \u201cproviding dignified housing for each person in the country,\u201d which includes appropriate basic sanitation\u00a0infrastructure<\/a>, Julianelli underlined the importance of social movements<\/a>. Or as Ricardo put it, referring to previous protests against CEDAE\u2019s privatization in the 1990s: \u201cThis fight will be won in the streets<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas Wednesday, March 22 marked World Water Day. With the support of the Engineers and Architects Society of the State of Rio de Janeiro (SEAERJ) and NGO\u00a0Ba\u00eda Viva, the Engineering Club took […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":35614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1290,1333,335,452,1329],"tags":[371,842,1988,25,673,141,2215,2217,301,535,373,904,370,3688],"writer":[2370],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35613","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-civilsociety","8":"category-event-reports","9":"category-policies","10":"category-rio20","11":"category-by-international-observers","12":"tag-cedae","13":"tag-debate","14":"tag-engineering","15":"tag-human-rights","16":"tag-misplaced-public-priorities","17":"tag-privatization","18":"tag-psdb","19":"tag-psol","20":"tag-public-policy","21":"tag-sanitation","22":"tag-sewerage","23":"tag-utilities","24":"tag-water","25":"tag-world-water-day","26":"writer-lisa-godde"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35613"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=35613"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=35613"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=35613"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=35613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}