Uruguay: Attempts to privatize drinking water are denounced

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Uruguay’s Federation of Employees of State Sanitation Works (FFOSE) denounced new attempts to privatize drinking water through a government project involving foreign companies.

Called Neptuno, it involves constructing a new pumping station in a seaside resort near the Rio de La Plata and an 85-kilometer-long adductor pipeline to improve the water supply.

The president of the FFOSE, Federico Kreimerman, declared that “this type of policy harms the great majority and benefits large companies.

He added that “the privatization of drinking water production puts profit before social purpose, contrary to the constitutional mandate that considers access to this resource a fundamental human right”.

According to him, the questioned project has a cost of US$3 billion, and there is a proposal that it be financed with a 30-year contract, which would operate the plant, and FFOSE would buy the drinking water and then distribute it to the users.

In this perspective, the state entity would pay US$12 million per year for each cubic meter and for having potable water ready and available, added the union leader.

FFOSE made it clear that it disapproves of privatizations in all areas of the agency and the State because they cover up the progressive deterioration and dismantling, favoring the casualization of labor and the inefficiency of the services provided.

Within OSE, the director for the Frente Amplio, Edgardo Ortuño, claimed that the idea of the previous government was to build a dam on the Casupá stream, which flows into the Santa Lucía river, in the neighboring department of Canelones, a project already underway when Lacalle Pou assumed the presidency.

The trade union Intersyndical Workers Plenary – National Workers Convention (PIT-CNT) expressed its full support for the denunciation of the employees of the state company FFOSE, which has a long experience in serving the population and can ensure public access to water.

With information from Prensa Latina