GALWAY'S CONTINUING water quality issues will not be improved by any move by the State to privatise water provision, according to Irish and international participants in Latin America Week.
Social justice campaigners from Ecuador and Italy are due to speak on the water issue in Galway tonight as part of this year's annual programme organised by the Latin America Solidarity Centre (LASC).
Already, Sligo County Council's decision to employ the multinational, Veolia, for metering and billing of water supplied to non-domestic and "part" domestic users could be seen as privatisation "by stealth", the Latin America week organisers say.
Ecuadorian social justice activist Ricardo Buitron from Accion Ecologica and Italian activist Guiseppe Marzo of the organisation ASUD will address tonight's talk in NUI Galway's Arts Millennium building at 7pm.
Accion Ecologica is associated with a number of campaigns on natural resources, while ASUD has campaigned against water privatisation in Italy.
The multinational "trade" in water has already caused considerable hardship, they warn, and a new trade agreement under negotiation between the EU and the Andean Community of Nations may result in further liberalisation.
Over one billion people in the world lack safe access to clean water and 25 million people die every year as a result of contaminated waters, LASC points out.
"In Latin America, despite having 55 per cent of the world's total renewable water resources, 100 million people live without access to safe water," it says.
Privatisation of supply in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia and Colombia has resulted in increases in water rates, and continued illness and death from contaminated water, sparking demonstrations such as Bolivia's "water wars".
The Latin America week series of events will be held in Dublin, Limerick, Belfast and Derry, and Galway was included due to the relevance of the theme in the area.
Residents of Roundstone and surrounding areas must continue to boil water, due to recent detection of cryptosporidium.