DfID's "Iraq war"
George Monbiot, author of the Age of Consent, and Guardian columist, said that the conditional aid programmes of the British Department for International Development (DfID) were as devastating as the Iraq war. Speaking at an anti-privatisation conference organised by War on Want, he said recent developments in the privatisation of the water sector in South Africa are causing such hardship in Piri, Soweto, that people have taken to the streets in protest. Three demonstrators have been killed already in clashes with the police during protests. The main street of Soweto is up in barricades and has been set alight in fury and desperation.
British company Northumbria Water has recently installed pre-pay water meters into the deprived township, because non-payments of water bills, and subsequent riots when water supply was cut off, had become too frequent. This means that now, those who are too poor to pay beforehand, now cannot recieve a drop of water.
A similar scheme had been dropped in England because the Government had found the repercussions to be too harsh for the poor. A trial in another South African township, Madalevi, in 2000, had been the direct cause of a cholera outbreak, which killed 200 people. Yet the British government, through DfID still supports such developments in the name of aid. Monbiot revealed that DfID has given vast amounts of money to companies that promote privatisation initiatives in South Africa. Last year, DfID gave the Adam Smith Institute £6.3 million for this cause, more than they gave in aid to the desperately poor countries of Liberia and Somalia.
When Monbiot challenged Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for International Development, about DfID involvement in privatisation schemes in South Africa and the World, two days ago, he simply replied that the governments in countries such as South Africa are asking them to do it. "This is the most decietful, duplicitous, and infuriating response I've ever heard from a minister," said Monbiot. Monbiot, instead, asserts that Britain is leading the agressive World drive by rich countries towards the privatisation of public services in developing countries, with the aim of securing highly profitable contracts, no matter what the cost to the poor.
"This issue is as big as the Iraq war. It certainly kills many more people. And it is perhaps more revolting because it is coming directly from the the British aid budget," said Monbiot. He urged the audience to rise up against DfID, take direct action, and put our lives and livlihoods on the line in order to stop the secret atrocity.
Katherine Haywood
British company Northumbria Water has recently installed pre-pay water meters into the deprived township, because non-payments of water bills, and subsequent riots when water supply was cut off, had become too frequent. This means that now, those who are too poor to pay beforehand, now cannot recieve a drop of water.
A similar scheme had been dropped in England because the Government had found the repercussions to be too harsh for the poor. A trial in another South African township, Madalevi, in 2000, had been the direct cause of a cholera outbreak, which killed 200 people. Yet the British government, through DfID still supports such developments in the name of aid. Monbiot revealed that DfID has given vast amounts of money to companies that promote privatisation initiatives in South Africa. Last year, DfID gave the Adam Smith Institute £6.3 million for this cause, more than they gave in aid to the desperately poor countries of Liberia and Somalia.
When Monbiot challenged Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for International Development, about DfID involvement in privatisation schemes in South Africa and the World, two days ago, he simply replied that the governments in countries such as South Africa are asking them to do it. "This is the most decietful, duplicitous, and infuriating response I've ever heard from a minister," said Monbiot. Monbiot, instead, asserts that Britain is leading the agressive World drive by rich countries towards the privatisation of public services in developing countries, with the aim of securing highly profitable contracts, no matter what the cost to the poor.
"This issue is as big as the Iraq war. It certainly kills many more people. And it is perhaps more revolting because it is coming directly from the the British aid budget," said Monbiot. He urged the audience to rise up against DfID, take direct action, and put our lives and livlihoods on the line in order to stop the secret atrocity.
Katherine Haywood
posted by Katherine Haywood at 4:30 PM
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