DeeKnow’s Grotto

There's been talk lately about the possibility of fitting water meters to our household supplies in Hamilton in a user-pays sort of arrangement. The prospect of paying for water though is one that kiwi's generally abhorre (I know I do) unless you're an Aucklander who probably already drinks bottled Perrier by the gallon

Slowly but surely we're being educated about our lakes, waterways and underground reservoirs being polluted beyond the point of safe human consumption. The next logical step in the Fear-Uncertainty-Doubt sequence is for us to give up on natural supply and begin to fork out hard earned cash to corporations for something that we've always considered to be a God given right.

Jesus it winds me up.

The latest thing I read on the subject in the Waikato Times is that we may escape metering in the short term because the city council cant afford to fit the meters in the first place, ie they dont expect to be able to charge us enough without a revolt to recover the cost of installing them. How long that accounting excuse will save us though is anybodies guess.

I know there are some major water quality issues in the Waikato, lake Taupo has been showing signs of impact of decades of nitrogen from local farm fertilisers, the River suffers too through farm and orchard run-off and buildup of algae because of stagnation above the hydro dams. Surely its not too late for local and regional bodies to do something long-ish term, even if we pay for it one way or another through rates etc.

Realistically we have to accept we're gonna end up paying for our water some time, but at the very least we need to make sure distribution to urban households stays in local body hands and isn't privatised. If it does go the corporate way, heaven forbid, you can bet all the capitalists will be racing each other to pick up shares in NZ Water Co Ltd.

Check out this Scoop.co.nz article from 2002 ...

"Two huge European-based water multinational water companies already have a foothold in the Auckland region. Their names? Vivendi (French) and RWE (German). Together they make up the private consortium United Water which has a 30 year concession or 'lease' with the Papakura District Council to operate, manage and make private profit from community-owned water services

Privatisation evangelists preach about the likes of increased efficiency through competition as a benefit of corporate management and supply of services like water, but the truth is their profits will dissapear to the off shore coffers of the European water giants that will eventually be as powerful as todays Oil bandits are once water becomes a more precious resource than it already is.

Time for a revolution? ... Nope, its probably too late!

9:41:58 PM