The Age Of Commodity

by McDonald, David A.; RUITERS, GREG

• ISBN13: 9781844071340
• ISBN10: 1844071340
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-03-14
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

* The most complete and rigorous examination of the core issues in global water privatization debates and conflicts * Provides a wealth of cases studies, empirical data, thematic approaches, and frameworks for analysis * Essential reading for academics, policymakers, donor agencies, and activists involved in water privatization issues around the world In recent years, as globalization and market liberalization have marched forward unabated, the global commons continue to be commodified and privatized at a rapid pace. In this global process, the ownership, sale, and supply of water are increasingly the flashpoints for debates and conflict over privatization, and nowhere is the debate more advanced or acute than southern Africa. "The Age of Commodity" provides an overview on the debates over water privatization including a conceptual overview of water "privatization," how it relates to human rights, macro-economic policy and GATS, and how the debates are shaped by research methodologies. The book then presents case studies of important water privatization initiatives in the region, drawing out crucial themes common to water privatization debates around the world including corruption, gender equity, and donor conditionalities. This is book is powerful and necessary reading in our new age of commodity.

Table of Contents

List of Figures, Tables and Boxes	vii
About the Contributors	ix
Acknowledgements	xi
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations	xii
Introduction: From Public to Private (to Public Again?)	1	(12)
David A. McDonald and Greg Ruiters
PART 1 THEORY AND PRACTICE
1 Theorizing Water Privatization in Southern Africa	13	(30)
David A. McDonald and Greg Ruiters
2 The New Water Architecture of SADC	43	(16)
Larry A. Swatuk
3 The Constitutional Implications of Commercializing Water in South Africa	59	(18)
Sean Flynn and Danwood Mzikenge Chirwa
4 Turning Off the Taps on the GATS	77	(22)
Karl Flecker and Tony Clarke
PART 2 CASE STUDIES IN SOUTH AFRICA
5 Entrenching Inequalities: The Impact of Corporatization on Water Injustices in Pretoria	99	(21)
Peter McInnes
Box 1 South African Water Caucus (SAWC) Resolution on Water and Trade Adopted August 2003	118	(2)
6 Managing the Poor by Remote Control: Johannesburg's Experiments with Prepaid Water Meters	120	(10)
Ebrahim Harvey
Box 2 Resolution on Prepaid Meters by South African Municipal Workers' Union (Samwu)	128	(2)
7 Public Money, Private Failure: Testing the Limits of Market Based Solutions for Water Delivery in Nelspruit	130	(18)
Laila Smith, Amanda Gillett, Shauna Mottiar and Fiona White
8 The Political Economy of Public-Private Contracts: Urban Water in Two Eastern Cape Towns	148	(20)
Greg Ruiters
Box 3 Declaration of the Coalition Against Water Privatisation (South Africa)	166	(2)
9 The Murky Waters of Second Wave Neoliberalism: Corporatization as a Service Delivery Model in Cape Town	168	(21)
Laila Smith
Box 4 Western Cape Anti-Eviction Co-ordinating Committee (South Africa), Press Statement	188	(1)
10 'Free Water' as Commodity: The Paradoxes of Durban's Water Service Transformations	189	(17)
Alex Loftus
Box 5 The Phiri Water Wars of 2003	204	(2)
11 The Rise and Fall of Water Privatization in Rural South Africa: A Critical Evaluation of the ANC's First Term of Office, 1994-1999	206	(19)
Stephen Greenberg
PART 3 CASE STUDIES IN THE REGION
12 Stillborn in Harare: Attempts to Privatize Water in a City in Crisis	225	(15)
Rekopantswe Mate
13 'There is Still No Alternative': The Beginnings of Water Privatization in Lusaka	240	(18)
Karen Cocq
14 Water Privatization in Namibia: Creating a New Apartheid?	258	(17)
Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRI)
Box 6 Draft Manifesto Against Water Privatization in Namibia	273	(2)
15 The New Face of Conditionalities: The World Bank and Water Privatization in Ghana	275	(18)
Rudolf Nsorwine Amenga-Etego and Sara Grusky
Box 7 The Accra Declaration on the Right to Water	291	(2)
Index	293