Stopping
privatisation
In
1998, the water company in Naples, then called AMAN, was transformed into ARIN
SpA, a ‘SocietÃ
per azioni’ (SpA) or joint-stock company. It was still fully owned by the
public, but its status as a joint-stock company implied that it had to operate
like a private company with the goal of making profit. It was, however, the
plan to part-privatise ARIN SpA in 2004, which resulted in a broad alliance of
resistance. This alliance consisted of local water committees around the well-known
Catholic priest Alex Zanotelli on one hand, and a network of intellectuals on
the other. While the committees mobilised broadly amongst the population, the
network of intellectuals set up an assembly, which produced a publication for
public water and drafted an appeal on 22 December 2005 against privatisation,
which was signed by well-known public people.
After
ongoing struggles throughout 2005, the mayor of Naples accepted on 30 January
2006 that privatisation was a mistake and cancelled the competition. On the
basis of this success, activists from Naples became closely involved in the
setting up of the Italian Water Movements Forum at the national level in 2006,
which in turn was then behind the successful referendum in 2011.
Remunicipalising
water: setting up Acqua Bene Comune.
The
2011 referendum on public water had been successful in that the law by the
Berlusconi government, which had forced municipalities to privatise their water
companies, was abrogated. Nevertheless, while no further privatisations were
implemented, those companies which had already been privatised, were not
returned into public hands. Equally, the various public holding companies,
operating like private companies, were not turned into public companies with a
special status either. Naples was the only exception in this respect. After
considerations had started in 2011 following the victory in the referendum, the
new company Acqua Bene Comune was finally established in April 2013.
The
most important aspect of this victory was, as one of my interviewees pointed
out, that the transformation had been based on participatory democracy. As a
result, the new statutes include a number of important novelties emphasising
the importance of social solidarity, ecology, participatory democracy,
sustainable development and good governance (see www.abc.napoli.it). Unlike
private companies or SpAs, which have the objective of making profits, ABC has
the obligation to balance the books. This allows the company to spend any
surplus generated on infrastructure improvements and good causes, including a
social tariff for those families and users, who find it difficult paying their
water charges. This also involves an international solidarity fund, which is
used to provide development assistance to countries in Africa, for example, in
securing access to water.
The
company covers new ground in many respects and especially introducing
mechanisms of participatory democracy has not been easy. Article 41 of ABC’s
statutes outlines its ambitions for the involvement of civil society in the
running of the company. It sets up a committee, the Comitato di Sorveglianza,
as an institution of control, which includes elected worker representatives and
members from the water committees and environmental groups. Nevertheless, the
committee does not meet regularly, it is not fully institutionalised and does
not have a clear role. During the period of Maurizio Montalto’s directorship of
ABC, water activists told me, positive steps had been made towards the
involvement of society. A Consiglio Civico was established, open to anyone
interested in public water. From this assembly, five delegates and one referent
were elected, who had the direct right to participate in the administration of
ABC. However, when Maurizio Montalto was dismissed in 2016 over a disagreement
with the mayor about the future direction of the company, this experiment came
to an end.
Challenges ahead
Capital
never gives up, even when it has been defeated. As elsewhere in Italy (see Privatisation
by stealth), there is continuing pressure on water privatisation and ABC is
not necessarily in a strong position. At the moment, ABC is in charge of the
water pipe network and the delivery of water to households, but waste water is
handled by a separate public company, also owned by the city of Naples. The
intention is that waste water will be shifted to ABC, but this still needs to
happen. With general emphasis on organising water as an integrated service, ABC
is in a weak position until this has been accomplished.
 |
| Photo by Marco Menu |
Moreover,
a new law in 2015 re-organised the five separate administrative areas into one
administrative unit for the region of Campania, the so-called Ente Idrico
Campano. In turn, this new unit wants to establish one water company providing
an integrated service in each of the five regional districts in Campania. ABC,
which provides water for Naples, is entitled to participate in this process,
but this will involve that ABC has to take over the water services of an
additional 31 municipalities in its regional area. Some of these water services
are public, but some have been privatised. ABC has already attempted to take
over several of the other municipal water services, but so far without success.
In short, there are great uncertainties about whether ABC will be able to
incorporate these 31 municipalities in line with the new law. If not, a private
company may want to step in and control the water services of the region.
In
view of these ongoing tensions and the continuing struggle over providing
institutions for meaningful citizens’ participation in ABC, the alliance
against water privatisation has started to fragment. There is a lot of mistrust
between the administration of ABC and the mayor on one hand, and activists from
the water committees on the other. In turn, workers at ABC question to what
extent members of civil society would actually have the relevant knowledge to
participate in the management of water services. Additionally, they argue that
the mayor should show more support for ABC in its attempts to take over other
municipal water companies. Finally, even within the water committees
themselves, tensions have come to the fore. Unfortunately, as one activist told
me, political parties have become involved in the committees trying to attach
their electoral fortunes to public water, although the strength of the Italian
water movement had traditionally been that it had not become involved in party
politics.
‘Despite
all these difficulties’, Constanza (not the real name) a water activist from
the committees told me, ‘we need to retain Naples as a positive example for
others, especially now when the pressure on privatisation is increasing again
across Italy’. And Naples has demonstrated what can be achieved by a public
water company without the main focus on making profit reflected in its social
tariffs, its international solidarity fund and the generally highly progressive
statutes. ‘I am proud to work for a company, which has as its main objective the
provision of a high quality, affordable service to Naples’ citizens’ says
Alessandro (not the real name), a water engineer of ABC. It is this kind of
commitment combined with social objectives, which public companies nurture. It
is in this respect that we can learn from ABC.
Andreas Bieler
Andreas Bieler
Professor of Political Economy
University of Nottingham/UK
Andreas.Bieler@nottingham.ac.uk
Personal website: http://andreasbieler.net
30 July 2018
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