In 1994, the South African government abandoned its Reconstruction and Development Program that ensured that natural resources, such as water, would be accessible to all citizens irrespective of race or class (Mackinnon, 2005). Forsaking this original mandate, the national government now allowed water bureaucrats the authority to provide water only if there was a full cost recovery of operating and maintenance costs (Mackinnon, 2005). Upon advice from international financial institutions and Western governments, the South African government decreased grants and subsidies to local municipalities forcing them to eventually turn to commercialization and privatization of basic services to make up for the lost revenue (Mackinnon, 2005). Many municipalities began signing contracts with large US and European water firms after heavy lobbying efforts from these private transnational companies (Mackinnon, 2005). In January 2001, the Johannesburg metro privatized their water services and signed a five-year contract with French water company Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux (Mackinnon, 2005). The municipality maintained that by contracting out their water services, they would see an increase in accessibility to water increased efficiency in management (Mackinnon, 2005). However, residents of Black townships in Johannesburg began to see a deterioration in their basic human rights, health and dignity that they were forced to contest (Bond, 2008). Green neoliberalism and the privatization of water hinders social reproduction and amplifies existing racial and classist inequalities globally and specifically in post-apartheid Johannesburg. These perverse hierarchies and their consequential discrimination are met with strong opposition from the poor who figh...
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...e pre-paid parish pump. Law, Democracy and Development 12, 1, pp. 1–28.
Miraftab F (2004). Neoliberalism and casualization of public sector services: The case of waste
collection services in Cape Town, South Africa. International Journal of Urban and Regional
Research 28(4): 874-892.
Narsiah S (2011). Urban Pulse-The Struggle for Water, Life and Dignity in South African Cities: The Case of Johannesburg. Urban Geography. 32(2): 149-155.
Goldman M (2007). How “Water for all!” policy became hegemonic: The power of the World Bank and its transnational policy networks. Geoforum 38(5): 786-800.
Mackinnon D (2005). Water is life: The Anti-Privatisation Forum and the Struggle against Water Privatisation in South Africa. Coalition against Water Privatization.
Lorrain D (2005). The local global firm: Lyonnaise des Eaux. Sociologie du Travail 47(3): 340-361.
Smith, D. A. (1996). Third World Cities in Global Perspective: The Political Economy of Uneven Urbanization. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press Inc.
Maude Barlow’s “Water Incorporated: The Commodification of the World’s Water” gives a voice to a very real, but vastly unknown, issue: the privatization of water. I refer to it as vastly unknown because it wasn’t until this article that I was even aware such a power struggle existed. Barlow first introduces startling statistics, meant to grab the attention of its readers. Once she has your attention, she introduces the “new generation of trade and investment agreements.” (306)
Mike Davis in his book Planet of Slums, discusses the Third World and the impact globalization and industrialization has on both urban and poverty stricken cities. The growth of urbanization has not only grown the middle class wealth, but has also created an urban poor who live side by side in the city of the wealthy. Planet of Slums reveals astonishing facts about the lives of people who live in poverty, and how globalization and the increase of wealth for the urban class only hurts those people and that the increase of slums every year may eventually lead to the downfall of the earth. “Since 1970 the larger share of world urban population growth has been absorbed by slum communities on the periphery of Third World cities” (Davis 37). Specifically,
In the documentary, Blue Gold: World Water Wars, it follows several people and countries world-wide in their fight for fresh water. The film exposes giant corporations as they bully poorer developing countries to privatize their own supply of fresh water. As a result of the privatization, corporations make a hefty profit while the developing countries remain poor. Blue Gold: World Water Wars also highlights the fact that Wall Street investors are going after the desalination process and mass water export schemes. This documentary also shows how people in more developed nations are treating the water with much disregard, and not taking care of our finite supply. We are polluting, damming, and simply wasting our restricted supply of fresh water at an alarming speed. The movie also recognizes that our quick overdevelopment of housing and agriculture puts a large strain on our water supply and it results in desertification throughout the entire earth. The film shows how people in more industrialized nations typically take water for granted, while others in less industrialized nations have to fight for every drop.
Water privatization is putting water rights into private corporations. In developing countries privatization is acceptable but in developed countries water should be left to the public. In the developed countries like the US, France and Europe water is controlled by the public and private companies or corporations. Water remains a function of municipal government in 90% of cities around the US and Suez Environment and Veolia Water are the top two water companies.2 The consensus throughout the US is that water should be the publics responsibility because water in privately owned water facilities is more expensive and in some cases below standards and less desirable.6 People in the US want to keep their water in their hands because they feel better knowing that people like them control and consume the same water as they do and not people who do not. Putting water in the control of private companies has some less desirable effects on the public. These organizations have a profit motive with incentives that cause them to avoid conservation and efficiency measures since profits depend upon volu...
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (2000). The IMF and the World Bank: puppets of the neoliberalism onslaught. Retrieved April 05, 2014, from MIT website: http://www.mit.edu/~thistle/v13/2/imf.html
...f South African language and culture, acknowledgement of the racial oppression in South Africa, past and present, that it was wrong and positive action is required to make it right, and finally that all South Africans are legitimate and enjoy full moral equality (“About – DA”). In order for all this to be possible, the state must ensure it does not compromise the freedom of the individual (“About – DA”).
Frieden, Jeffry A., David A. Lake, and Kenneth A. Schultz. World Politics. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2013. Print.
“The process of globalization and the increasing role of non-state actors in global governance are undermining the role of the state as the principal actor in global policymaking.”
Glazewski, J.A. 2005. Environmental law in South Africa. 2nd ed. Cape Town: Butterworth publishing. 665 p.
In Africa, one important feature of the urbanization process is that a lot of the growth is taking place in the industrial increase. Urbanization also finds expression in external expansion of the built-up area and the changing of prime agricultural lands into residential and industrial uses (Saundry, 2008). An alternate to the present expansion of the urban population across a wide area of the country in order to save crucial land for agriculture is to construct high-rise buildings and support commercial development in specific zones, which would depend on efficiency, and the right technology and resources (Hanson, 2011). In Africa, the urbanization processes are largely driven by market forces and government policies. This will lead to methods at the same time of change in incomes, land use, health and natural resources management including water, soil and forests and often reactive changes in local governments (The Economist, 2010). So this is saying that government development policies and budget divisions, in which urban residents are often favorites over rural areas and will tend to pull more people into the urban areas. I...
Baylis, Smith and Patricia Owens. 2014. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. The globalization of world politics: An introduction to international relations. London.
One main causes of water scarcity is water mismanagement worldwide. Water mismanagement has become a crisis of governance that will impact heavily ...
Krain, Matthew (2005), “AP Comparative Government and Politics Briefing Paper: Globalization,” [http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/ap05_comp_govpol_glob_42253.pdf], accessed 15 May 2012.
It is therefore an indispensable component of democracy (Tshabalala & Lombard, 2009:397). Local government should therefore be concerned with democratising development (Maserumule, 2008:439). The reason for the continuing dissatisfaction and protests by the communities because of poor service delivery eighteen years into democracy is an indication that the local government in South Africa has not been able to provide effectively for local participation (Mathekga & Buccus, 2006:11). In the South African context, community needs cannot be isolated from structural causes, so participation is incorporated into the social justice perspective (Patel,