Lisbon, 21 March 2024

DECLARATION - 22 MARCH 2024 - WORLD WATER DAY

At a time when humanity is experiencing great dangers, where new conflicts and military aggressions persist and emerge and the predatory action of the great powers in the dispute over natural resources is increasingly aggressive, the theme chosen by the United Nations to celebrate World Water Day, which is celebrated on 22 March, "Water for Peace", could not be more topical.

Of course, it's not water itself that creates peace or triggers conflicts, but rather its unequal distribution and control, the root of co-operation and conflict over it. By prioritising the interests of multinationals and financial groups, and the consumption of those who can afford it, rather than the needs of the people, workers, small farmers and the poorest, global water management is failing to fulfil the UN's vision of "Water for Peace".

The injustices in this area continue to be manifold: more than two billion people do not have access to drinking water at home; 3.6 billion do not have access to sanitation; 80 per cent of all wastewater is disposed of without treatment.

One of the most blatant contemporary examples of water injustice is the situation in Gaza. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have long been denied their right to water. Water, an essential commodity for life, has become an instrument of war. For more than five months, Palestinians have had no access to drinking water sources and continue to face threats to their health and dignity. We condemn the ongoing genocide in Gaza committed by Israel, the human rights violations, including the denial of access to basic human needs such as drinking water and food.

We reaffirm that water is a right and should not be a business, even more attractive in situations of scarcity or drought. We need to guarantee that access, use and safeguarding of water resources are committed to public management and ownership and the corresponding investment, if we want to avoid conflicts arising.

At a national level, where three out of four families are struggling to make ends meet, what successive PS, PSD and CDS governments have done is turn water into a commodity and an instrument for accumulating profit.

This is what has determined the increasing withdrawal of responsibilities from the state and the weakening of public water administration services.

This is why, despite the risks, we continue to see the proliferation of intensive and super-intensive crops that consume more than 80 per cent of the water, as can be seen in the perimeter of the Alqueva Multipurpose Development.

This is the reason for using the drought, particularly in the Algarve, as an argument to justify price rises, trying to pass the burden of the problem on to municipalities, families and small farmers. But the underlying problem is not the drought, but the fact that we are consuming more water than is feasible to feed a growth model, both agricultural and tourist, that is unfair and unsustainable.

This is what explains why the private groups that own the dams continue to seriously damage ecosystems and the various uses of water, making it clear that the Albufeira Convention, designed to favour large economic interests, must be urgently changed.

This is what is forcing the "aggregations" of municipal water systems, blocking access to EU funds for municipalities that don't give up municipal management, in other words, excluding 72 per cent of mainland municipalities, disrespecting local autonomy and failing to respond to the main needs posed by the management of networks and their urgent rehabilitation.

The fight against privatisation in recent years has been strong and has achieved victories: Mafra, Fafe, Paredes and Setúbal have even regained public water management, resulting in lower prices and better quality services.

However, the threats remain and could increase with the victory of the right in the legislative elections, given their history and objectives, and with the increasing pressure from big business for control and ownership of water resources.

An example of this is the use of public-private partnerships for water desalination plants, such as the one planned for the Algarve, a highly energy-intensive activity with considerable environmental impacts - for every litre of drinking water created through water desalination, there are around 1.5 litres of polluted liquid waste. If this toxic brine is pumped back into the sea, it depletes oxygen and affects organisms along the food chain.

Recalling that universal access to water in Portugal is a right won with the April 1974 Revolution, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, STAL and Associação Água Pública reaffirm that water is a public good, a fundamental human right whose ownership, management and provision falls entirely within the public sphere and democratic deliberation. What is required, therefore, is to build quality public services, close to the people, equipped with the appropriate means to guarantee universal access to water and sanitation and to ensure better working conditions.

It is with public water that red carnations and peace are watered !

STAL / Associação Água Pública 

STAL warmly welcomes the approval by the Municipality of Setúbal, on the 24th of November, of recovering the municipal public management of water and sanitation, thus putting an end to the concession to private companies approved in 1997 by the socialist party, a decision marked by several suspicions, in which EPAL – the major water public company was even prohibited to compete by the then Minister of Environment Elisa Ferreira, in a clear favoring of private interests.

The decision now proposed by the communist party and the greens coalition - CDU, corresponding to an electoral commitment made in the last local elections by this political force, was approved with the votes in favor of the socialists, with the abstention of the social-democrats, and, according to the note issued by the municipality, “the municipal public management carried out by municipal services or municipalised services is the one that best adapts to the reality” and which, from a financial point of view, "should represent a superior added value" for the Municipality of Setúbal "and better tariff conditions for the users”.

For STAL, this is a great victory for the populations and workers, and is another example - after Mafra, Paredes and Santo Tirso, who rescued the concessions - which belies the proclaimed superiority of private management and confirms that these sections should not leaving the public sphere.

In this regard, the union recalls that in Fafe, where Indáqua charges one of the most expensive waters in the country, the contract ends at the end of 2021, as well as in Trancoso, another locality, so it reaffirms the demand that these municipalities put an end to privatization.

For this very reason, STAL will continue to fight for a law that prevents the privatization, in whatever form, of these essential services and demands the remunicipalization of privatized services, namely abusive contracts already declared illegal by the Court of Auditors.

Improve the public service and defend workers' rights

STAL hopes that the transition period that will elapse until the creation and installation of the municipal services takes place in a normal way, expressing, from now on, all availability to accompany and participate in this process, being unequivocal that the City Council will have to admit all workers, whose rights must be fully safeguarded.

As the Union has always stated, the privatization of water is a politically illegitimate, socially unfair and economically wrong decision, which seriously harms the interests of the municipality, populations and workers, for which the return of water to municipal public management, naturally constituting reason of satisfaction for those who, like us, consider that water is a right and not a business, it can and should be, above all, an opportunity to develop a management committed to the values of public service, to the defense of workers' rights and populations and the environment.

For our part, we are available and we will do everything to make it so.

STAL - Sindicato Nacional dos Trabalhadores da Administração Local e Regional, Empresas Públicas, Concessionárias e Afins

Translation in English of a STAL (Sindicato Nacional dos Trabalhadores da Administração Local e Regional, Empresas Públicas, Concessionárias e Afins) press release.

Lisbon, 1 February 2019

STAL denounces the public water trade

In 2016, the portuguese construction group Mota-Engil, majority shareholder of Indáqua, the other shareholder being the German insurance group Talanx, sold its stake to the Israeli group Miya for € 60 million.

After three years, Indáqua, one of the largest private water service concessionaires in our country, is the target of a new transaction, bought this time by the International Private Equity Fund, Bridgepoint, ignoring the amounts involved in this business.

A business which, as STAL has always denounced, confirms that the financialization and growing dominance of foreign capital in the water sector, an inseparable consequence of privatization, would be a matter of time, as in all sectors open to privatization.

Press release - December 11th, 2016

The municipality of Mafra, which was the first municipality to privatize water and sanitation services in Portugal, makes it precisely 22 years ago, decided on last 9th od december, unanimously, to terminate the concession agreement with Be Water.

The decision was taken after the private operator submitted a request for tariff increases of 30 percent, which was considered "unacceptable,", said the municipality in a statement.

In order to carry out the redemption of the concession, the municipality promoted an economic-financial and legal study, concluding that full municipal management of services will reduce tariffs by up to five percent, and therefore, instead of a worsening, domestic consumers may benefit from a reduction in the water prices.

Water privatisation is once again a topic of debate in Portugal. The subject was recently discussed in the Portuguese parliament, where the leader of the The Greens party, Heloisa Apolonia, accused the government of “withdrawing its promises on the water sector”.

Minister of Environment Jorge Moreira da Silva has assured that authorities will not privatise Águas de Portugal (ADP), the national company that manages water supply in the country. However, the minister is supporting the restructuring of the treatment system and water supply — which includes raising tariffs in the coastal municipalities to reduce prices in the interior of the country — to ensure its “economic and financial sustainability.”

Local councilors fear that this restructuring is a step to privatise this essential commodity in the same way the country's urban waste management company fell into private hands in 2014. The country's high levels of debt put it at the mercy of foreign capital, making it more vulnerable to privatisation.

But the minister has rejected this theory, saying that the reform implemented avoids this scenario. Moreira da Silva says the plan will lead to greater equity in the cost of water across the country.

Read more on the website of GlobalVoice

Statement by The National Union of Local and Regional Government Workers (STAL)

Portuguese Court of Auditors uncovers profiteering in the water sector

An investigation by the Court of Auditors has uncovered the true consequences of private management of the water sector: private companies pocket hefty profits whilst residents and local authorities are left to pick up the bill.

A report published on 27th February by the Portuguese Court of Auditors into Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the water sector vindicates STAL’s ongoing struggle to expose the consequences of privatising public services in the water and sanitation sector. It shows how detrimental these deals are both for local authorities and ordinary citizens, who are forced to pay all the costs whilst private companies pocket hefty profits.

Lançada inicialmente em 2008, a Campanha “Água é de todos” foi relançada no passado dia 29 de Julho por 10 organizações que constituem a Comissão Promotora. Alargando-se a mais de cem organizações e movimentos, a Campanha é hoje um espaço incontornável em defesa da água pública.