Desalination plan a way to saddle consumers with cost
✒ SOUTH West Water’s already discredited, madcap scheme to foist a desalination plant and its £30 million to £60 million cost on to our water bills is a direct consequence of privatisation.
The day in 1989 that water in this country was made into a source of profit was the day the ethos changed. No longer was it a simple matter of maintaining the reservoirs and pipes and processing the sewage. Suddenly, dividends for shareholders (typically private equity, hedge fund, foreign) and bosses’ seven-figure salaries became the priority.
The overriding need to enrich a select few at the expense of the community has led directly to the threat of a desalination plant. South
West Water’s sole justification for this project is that it is committed to ensuring the taps don’t run dry: but, of course, those words ring hollow because in the same breath the company says that repairing leaking pipes is an expensive way of protecting water supplies.
The reality is that repairing pipes and making sure Colliford Reservoir (only 72% full after eight months’ torrential rain) is a drain (no pun intended) on profits while a sexy capital scheme can simply be loaded on to the bills we all pay.
It is easy to see how a desalination plant seems a quick win for the freeloaders.
Taking water, along with gas, electricity, telecoms, rail, mail and housing, back into public ownership needs to happen. These industries need to be run by a system of grassroots democracy involving the workers and consumers. We have seen with the appalling Post Office scandal that a publicly-owned utility run on top-down, capitalist lines offers no protection or accountability to workers or consumers. Shareholders, who have had a ball for 35 years, will receive no compensation except in cases of proven need.
The immediate task for the many people who cherish Par beach and St Austell Bay is to defeat the desalination pro
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The day water made into a source of profit was the day the ethos changed
posal. Once that is achieved, I hope people will reflect on the fact that while water remains a source of profit the next desalination project is just around the corner. We need our utilities back in public hands.
Rob Rooney Cornwall Socialist Party