PENANG: Plans to privatize water resource management in Malaysia have come under fire from a coalition of civil society groups that fear it will lead to higher tariffs and burden the poor.

The disquiet has emerged even as the legal framework for privatization is being put in place. Parliament passed the Constitution Amendment Bill in January transferring supply and management of water away from respective states to the federal level, sparking criticism from Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang.

"It is putting the cart before the horse for Parliament to proceed with the Constitution Amendment Bill 2004 without first being requested by the State Legislative Assemblies," as required under the Constitution, said Lim.

Two more bills - the Water Industry Bill and a bill to establish a regulatory National Water Services Commission - are expected to be presented in Parliament by early April. These bills would pave the way for water resource management privatization.

Already, a newly set up Coalition Against Water Privatization comprising 26 civil society groups has handed in protest memorandums to Parliament and the National Human Rights Commission, Suhakam. The coalition argues that the right to water is a basic human right, a common good that should not be subject to the profit motive.

It is a high-stakes battle. An official study has estimated that the total value of the water industry from 2000 to 2050 will soar from 51.6 billion ring git (13.6 billion dollars) to 77 billion ringgit (20.3 billion dollars).

The protest here mirrors a similar campaign in neighbouring Indonesia, where civil society groups have asked Indonesia's Constitutional Court to review the Water Resources Act, which facilitates privatization.

They argue that the legislation, passed last year as required by a World Bank loan package, compromises the Indonesian government's ability to ensure access to water for the poor.

In December, the Constitutional Court annulled the Electricity Law, which promoted deregulation and privatisation in Indonesia's power industry - a move that civil society groups regarded as a victory against the neo-liberal agenda of global financial institutions.

In Malaysia's case, part of the impetus for water privatization appears to be coming from the Malaysian Water Partnership (MyWP), which consists of 67 institutional members, including government agencies, the private sector, and other interested "stakeholders".

MyWP is the national chapter of the Global Water Partnership (GWP), a pro-business think tank funded by the European Union, the International American Development Bank and a string of European governments.

GWP, whose secretariat is in Stockholm, promotes integrated water resource management principles and public-private partnerships - euphemisms for neo-liberal privatisation. It was set up in 1997 by the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank, whose own record on water privatization has been dismal.

The European Union, for its part, has been using World Trade Organization rules and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) to prise open national water services to foreign competition.

Only about five per cent of the world's water is currently in private hands, but with increasing scarcity and the prospect of higher water tariffs, profit-motivated private firms have shown interest in taking over national water systems. -Dawn/The Inter Press News Service