PPPs are not the answer to the water crisis, but how can we get the message across?

World Social Forum, Tunis, March 2015

New Cairo Waste Water Station New Cairo Waste Water Station

Construction started 2010 & expected to be ready in 2012

Upper class real-estate development project built in the hills in the desert

Consortium Orascom/Aqualia (+EBRD)

Built for 1 million inhabitants, New Cairo barely contains 500.000 inhabitants

Will construction cost be paid back through the water bill of all Cairenes?

4 million m3/day pipe being built to supply New Cairo with more freshwater will cost 435 million $

Raises a lot of question

• Paying back for the New Cairo Waste Water Station would mean that each of the one million inhabitants will pay 5LE for each m³ of drinking water they consume from 2010 onwards, compared to the 0,40LE they currently pay. This won't happen though, as these investments add up to the central governments' debts and thus all Egyptian citizens, also those without access to sanitation in Imbaba and Minia, will help them pay the bill and pay back the investments in New Cairo.

• Construction is still not finished

• EBRD’s director on their participation in the joint-venture that is building the New Cairo Waste Water Station:

“it’s not a monetary contribution – it’s a political contribution”

Prioritization: Speculation vs Basic Needs

New Cairo Waste Water Station

150 million $ + 435 million $ for a potential 1 million inhabitants

How is this linked with the lack of access to water throughout the country?

Portal to help citizens understand government investments:

http://watermap.hcer.info Help citizens without access to water help

authorities accountable

Further analysis on distribution of investments

Average Residential consumption (per capita)

1 If you’re an investor in a new city or in a new development area water

provision and sanitation will be arranged before anyone will come and live in your house to promote your investment.

2 Investments in both drinking water and sanitation will likely be

made if you’re living in the core of a big city, and

3 there’s a fair chance you’ll have access to drinking water if you live in

an old informal area or a small city, while you’re awaiting the promised sanitation and hope drinking water doesn’t get contaminated.

4 Those who live on the fringes of a city or in the Nile Valley’s

countryside will scramble for the few investments that are left to keep their contaminated drinking water running,

5 those in more remote villages resort to expensive popular drinking

water and sanitation systems.

2.3 million familiesWithout access to water in 2006(14%à

7 million familiesWithout access to sanitation in 2006(37%)

7.9 million familiesWith access to sanitation in 2006(49%)

28%

5%

3%

64%

The state’s priorities in terms of investment

Right to access information?

-in January 2014 the government started raised prices without informing the public

we filed a case to guarantee citizens’ right to access this kind of information

Right to access information?Construction term New Cairo Waste Water Station has been extended for years,

We’re worried contract has been amended and price will be even higher? No contract transparency!

In last ten years three master plans have been made, none of them was released to the public

Governorate-Based National Master Plan for

Water Supply and Wastewater (2007-2037)

National Water Resources Plan 2007-2015

Facing water scarcity, Horizon 2050 policy note 

Conditionalities of the reformAid conditionalities We obtained these through access of information requestsEU’s Water Sector Budget Support program (Phase 1: 2005-2009 worth 80 million euro):-20 conditions

-3 macro-economic-4 PPP/privatisation-3 decentralise construction authorities-2 regulators-4 on scarcity-1 monitoring

Disproportionate focus on PPPs.-Phase 2: 2012-2016 worth 120 million euro

-PPP conditions were left out, suspicion of fraud

Disregard for human rights or right to water:-narrow view of water issues, i.e. no attention accessibility/affordibility-don’t refer to Special Rapporteur for the Right to Water’s 2009 mission to Egypt which raised serious accountability issues regarding the reform

She noted that it was "exceedingly difficult to obtain information about the quality of (...) drinking water" and "there was confusion about where to send complaints" - the Holding Company, the Ministry of Health or the Regulatory Agency. "The overlapping responsibilities create a situation where no institution considers itself accountable for the problem in question", she concluded, adding that "the overall lack of transparency and access to information in the water and sanitation sectors creates an atmosphere of suspicion, which is characterized by a lack of confidence in the quality of drinking water and overall distrust of the Government and the Holding Company.“

-civil society wasn’t consulted, they impose policy on foreign country-On EU’s demand three visions for the future are drafted, neither involves civil society or releases them to the public.

More PPPs?

These reforms go hand in hand with a new type of private sector partnership:

EuropeAid and EIB’s ISSIP-project will pilot Rural PPPs:

i.e. 15 rural PPP clusters in Beheira

Legal uncertainty Proposed New Water Law

Available on website USAID-program, but they have been trying to have it voted since 8 years

Holding Company for Water and Waste Water & Egyptian Water Regulatory Agency

• To establish them parliament was bypassed and instead they were established by presidential decree in 2004.

• Regulator still doesn’t have a role, mandate is to be governed by new law

Reform attempted to decentralize investments away from rural construction authority, but this failed.

Are PPPs an attempt to use the private sector to bypass these authorities? Is there no other alternative?

Who government agency is supposed to overview the New Cairo Waste Water PPP? Who is paying?

What can we do: Strategic litigation ?

There’s a lot of gaps in legislation, we have to use these to advance an alternative

Governorate-Based National Master Plan for Water Supply and Wastewater (2007-2037):

- Contains all rural drinking water and sanitation projects and which explains ones could be build as PPPs

- EU’s conditionalities are entirely build on this, but this Master Plan seems to be a very secretive document

- Demand access to this document will mean a leap forward for:- right to access to information- start discussion on equity in drinking water investment and

allow us to have a discussion on viability PPPs- challenge the priorities in investment- help communities hold the two construction authorities

accountable

Use the water map to;

http://watermap.hcer.infoخريطة استثمارات المياه:

1. Get informed on which projects are planned in your governorate

2. Verify if this money was effectively used

and how much money they have allocated

and how the project is advancing

4. File a complaint to the government

or ask Habi’s help to support you in doing so

5. See how most of the investment goes to the new cities

and confront the government to allocate investments where it is most needed

3. Document declining water service or quality

link this with the lack of water investment in your region

and confront the government with their duties to respect your right to water