“To fix a leaky pipe, they make a big hole to make more money. This research investigates potential contributions by the privatization of water production to sustainability of water supply. But Marioglou and Initiative 136 members insist that state business-as-usual just isn’t working. Tens of thousands protest against austerity in Greece. More Water & WasteWater International Current Issue Articles, More Water & WasteWater International Archives Issue Articles, New microscope technique reveals details of droplet nucleation, Antwerp desalination plant will convert dock water into process water for industry, ABB provides digital water management solutions to India’s Koppal district, Final WRDA package leaves clean water out, Four killed in explosion at water treatment plant in Bristol. Greeks Stand Up to Protect Their Water From Privatization. “They’re not threatened.” Not yet anyway. Greece's highest constitutional court, the Council of State, took the unprecedented step of blocking the proposed privatisation of the country's biggest water utility (Athens Water) on the grounds that the sale could put public health at risk. Greek activists were moved by a show of solidarity at an October meeting of the European Water Assembly in Florence. Because it would be unmanageable to have one large citizen body oversee the city’s entire water works, explained Marioglou, they will decentralize. The French water company, Suez, owns 5 percent of EYATH, and could increase its share if privatization proceeds. ", Kouvelis adds: "Broadly speaking we have to take on board the notion that water is part of the renewable energy source of Greece - especially in terms of the smaller hydro power stations that can and need to be developed as much as possible.". Water cannons irrigating maize in the middle of the day - 40% evaporates and doesn't even reach the crops - whilst at the same the EU continues to subsidize crops like cotton which are not at all sustainable. Despite early interest from France's Suez Environnement and Israel's Mekorot, there was what could be considered a major political earthquake with the Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza) being elected as the largest party in the Hellenic Parliament and with its young and charismatic chairman, Alexis Tsipras, being sworn in as Prime Minister of Greece. Other left parties argue that the public shouldn’t have to buy the company from the state — it’s already theirs. The Kallikratis plan for local government reform was designed to merge these smaller municipalities and utilities into larger units. The cooperatives would play a co-management role with the public water utility and serve as water watchdogs, stewards of the public good. It's crazy. Email: tomf@pennwell.com. Why should we be obliged to ask a shopkeeper to use their rest room? The third memorandum, signed by the Tsipras government in 2015, enabled the property of the Greek state to be given away through scandalous methods to multinational companies and other states. Section 4 explores the privatization efforts of the two largest public water companies of Greece, namely the Thessaloniki Water Supply and Sewerage S.A. (EYATH) and the Athens Water Supply and Sewerage S.A. (EYDAP). Water and sewerage is under public management in Greece. For example we need improved irrigation technologies. Greece: Water Privatisation Battle. Despite the severe social crisis in Greece, EYDAP and EYATH have been providing high quality, essential services at one of the most affordable tariffs in Europe. As for our islands - well, obviously you have a lot of tourism which means everyone requiring water when there happens to be no rainfall at all. High nitrogen discharges imperil the coastline with eutrophication. Al Khobar II Seawater Desalination Project to employ LG Chem RO Membranes. In such a swift and fast moving situation it's of course impossible to predict what the outcome is likely to be. While Greece’s Communist Party is against privatization of EYATH, they don’t agree with the idea of community cooperatives. Mismanagement, unsurprisingly, has been reflected in the country's water sector - not so much in Athens and Thessaloniki, where the two semi-private utilities EYDAP and EYATH are in charge of water supply and sanitation, but in the country's no less than 230 different municipal utilities. Jeremy Josephs is freelance contributor for WWi magazine. What is clear is that nothing is likely to happen at a lightning pace. Edit the famous song title from the film Grease and you have Greece Lightning. The sustainable desalination project, due to complete mid-2021, will create 20,000 liters of clean drinking water using the heat and power of the sun. The hybrid strategy combines a polyamide matrix and artificial water channels into a single structure for use on an industrial scale. The Irish anti-water charges campaign became ‘inspirational' to the people of Greece, according to Maria Karagianni, a member of Syriza's youth wing, who was closely involved in the three yearlong running anti-privatisation campaign which culminated in a referendum in May 2014 in which the people voted overwhelming "Okh'I" -- no in Greek. The water activists in Thessaloniki have learned from social movements beyond Greece’s borders. It captures people’s imagination broadly, countering the fear, cynicism and uncertainty caused by the Greek political system and the debt crisis. It is also cheaper and easier for EYATH to distribute. Greece to move forward with privatization of energy, mining companies. The 600 MLD facility is one of the largest RO plants in Saudi Arabia and the largest project in LG Chem’s history. Russia may well be prepared to throw some money towards Greece but at what price? The Greek parliament went further still - arguing that the companies should be sold off in their entirety. [quote quote=”We are not fighting for our jobs, we fight for our water, for poor people who really now cannot pay the water bill.” type=”text” author=”George Archontopoulos, EYATH workers union president”]. “You can tell if a society is democratic if its water is available to everyone, if it’s clean, and in public hands.” That’s how Kostas Marioglou sees it. It should be 2 metres but they make it 4 metres.” It rankles Marioglou that the state company has laid off almost half of the water workers in recent years — water workers who could be fixing leaky pipes. A recent study published in Scientific journal PLOS ONE argues that it was a 300-year drought that caused the demise of several eastern Mediterranean civilizations and cultures, including ancient Greece, some 3,200 years ago. We’ll decide on public investments.”. The duration of the government's participation in the superfund was set … That profit margin has, however, diminished in the last 9 months. For what is happening in the water sector is clearly intimately bound up with what is happening higher up the economic and political chains. As the country drowns in debt, the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank (often referred to as the “troika”) work with eager Greek political parties to balance the books by selling off public water. In a counter-strategy to allowing the Greek state selling off shares to private investors, Initiative 136 organizers are knocking on neighborhood doors to interest Thessaloniki’s households in buying a share for 136 euros each — which explains Initiative 136’s name. Australian water program creates opportunities for US technology companies. The Initiative seeks to establish a network of 16 cooperatives in Thessaloniki to manage a truly public company. All this will be further compounded by the lack of a concrete … NX Filtration to supply hollow fiber nanofiltration membranes for Indonesian drinking water plant. Ironically, the country is in fact endowed with abundant water resources of 58 billion cubic meters per year, of which the country uses just 12%. While one Russian source failed to specify what these might be, it is rumored that Moscow might well have its eyes set on the Greek gas company DEPA, the train operator TrainOSE - not to mention the sea ports of Athens and Thessaloniki alike. September 17, 2020. In fact, Marioglou bristled at the characterization of EYATH as a public utility. The aim of this article is to investigate the organization of water cooperatives in Greece for the first time, as promoted by a spontaneous social mobilization called Initiative 136. Greece knows a thing or two about democracy. Still to be sold are sensitive infrastructure assets such as railways, ports, and water or energy utilities. “That’s the public’s money. Brent Patterson. Speaking exclusively to WWi magazine, Spyros Kouvelis, Greece's former deputy minister for foreign affairs and current member of the Mediterranean Action Plan of the United Nations Environment Programme, says: "That's because of Greece's particular geography. the memorandums. And as an increasingly arid nation, good water management is fundamental to its future, both political and physical. The battles relating to the merging of Greece's utilities pale into insignificance when compared to the issue of water privatisation. Published. Initiative 136’s organizers propose that the neighbourhood cooperatives decide on such issues as water tariffs and an investment budget. But if the state doesn’t want EYATH, so be it. Greece’s economic woes continue to pile up, with key public utilities such as water now on the chopping block of privatization. An intricate diving operation was required to successfully upgrade the mixing operation at Scottish Water’s Wastewater Treatment Plant. As engineering lead on Lots 3 and 6, Black & Veatch will turn outline solutions into sustainable designs by utilizing modular and digital engineering capabilities. Government plans to privatise two of Athens' largest water companies didn't go according to plan but at what price for international involvement in the country? But since the program was presented by the previous socialist Papandreou cabinet rather than the new left-leaning and ruling Syriza party, the plan is now officially "under review". "The key here is to make sure that you have appropriate water management in the long-term because we have 16,000 kms of coast line with tourism and cities developing apace. He is currently working on a project to improve urban water utilities’ stewardship of upstream water sources and editing OTC’s series on water management. And “experience has shown that there is deep-seated political resistance to privatization in Greece,” the Fund noted. “Although the people’s message after two elections (6th of May and 17th of June) was clearly that of renegotiating the debt and the measures imposed by the Troika,” said Theodoros Karyotis, a member of Initiative 136, “the new government continues to apply the Troika program.”. Water supply and sanitation in Greece is characterised by diversity. And certainly not Greece Lightning. International team develops biomimetic membrane for desalinating seawater. The spring water is “absolutely gorgeous”, said Marioglou, and preferable to consumers. The nontoxic coating could provide a safer and more efficient alternative to harmful chemicals used to clean reverse osmosis systems for seawater desalination. So when it comes to droughts it depends on which part of the country you are talking about. Conditioning loans based on full or partial water privatization is an increasingly common practice of international lenders — and much criticized. After a legal action the Supreme court declared the plan of water privatization as illegal, because the Greek Constitution says explicitly, … But as Prof. Bieler reported, even if companies increase their holding of water rights, unionized water workers and citizens who regard water as an essential commons will fight on. Kouvelis adds: "The key issue, in my view, is that we need a full restructuring of how agriculture is carried out in Greece.". Water privatisation might be off of the Greek agenda, for the moment at least. Even in his halting English, Marioglou was careful to distinguish between public and state. Facility in Dumai, Indonesia will have a capacity of 50 liters per second (180m3/h), consisting of 120 NX Filtration dNF80 membrane modules. However, after a 2006 tour of EYATH facilities, reports George Archontopoulos, president of the EYATH workers union, company officials asked, “Why do you have [such] cheap water here in Thessaloniki?” Archontopoulos hopes that the financial crisis will make clear that water cannot be a counted on as a reliable profit center. Initiative 136 is not an effort to preserve the status quo. All rights reserved. Around 1990, the springs were overdrawn and the area ecology withered. Under economic collapse, Greece has been pressured by the EU to privatize the biggest water companies, while people already suffering from rising taxes and prices in social services imposed by the Greek government and the European partners. The Initiative also draws support from among the mayors and local town councils of Thessaloniki’s metropolitan areas. 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