PRESS STATEMENT: Federacion de Trabajadores de Agua Potable y Alcantarillado (FENTAP), Peru

Labor leaders in the water and sanitation workers union in Peru gave an outspoken rejection of the privatization of the potable water service in Tumbes.  They stated that it would have a negative impact on consumers, especially on the poor and on workers, and would likely translate into an immediate raise in consumer water rates in order to guarantee private commercial profit.  If the privatization moves forward, Tumbes could become the center of job losses and serious social conflict could engulf the region.  It would be preferable to avoid the outcomes experienced in other cities where privatizations, due to the distinct and special nature of water and sanitation services, have been cancelled and the services returned to the public sector.  Several failed privatizations were terminated recently when they became tangled in serious corruption involving municipal authorities, endangering the quality of life of the population and affecting the economy.

The workers sharply criticized the mayors of Tumbes, Zarumilla and Zorritos who, rather than focusing on the serious needs and problems of the region, are instead having disputes with PROINVERSION, the government privatization agency, over the privatization negotiations. The mayors want to participate directly in the negotiations with the private bidders, but the government agency PROINVERSION is taking leadership in the negotiation process and is preparing the final steps to concretize the transfer to private companies.  The citizens of Tumbes, who should be involved in the decision making, and the ones who will pay the bills for the privatization, have been maintained on the margins.

The aforementioned mayors have lied to the population of the country stating in a communication (La Republica, Sept. 24, 2003) that they held "referendum forums" where private participation in the water company was approved.  This is absolutely false.  The population has not been consulted and this exposes the real interests of the mayors in the privatization transactions.  Meanwhile, serious water and sanitation issues are not being addressed including the autonomy of the company, its efficiency, the need for improved commercial and operation management, the need for improved attention to consumer needs, and the lack of access to water and sanitation services.  The central theme that should be addressed is ending the use of EMFAPA TUMBES (the public water company) as a political instrument to further all types of interests of political officials including offering contracts to political followers.

It is important that the mayors recognize that what EMFAPA TUMBES, S.A. needs is professional administration lead by specialists in water and sanitation, rather than political interventionism.  What is needed is recognition of the essentially technical character of managing the water utility.  Alongside the needed professional administration by specialists should be the participation of civil society and the necessary social oversight that should be required when a service is linked to human life, the environment, and the development of the economy of the cities and the region.

Parallel with the movement toward privatization, and in order to resolve the dispute with the mayors, the national government and INDECOPI has declared the insolvency of the water utility initiating a process whereby public creditors (EX FONAVI, SUNAT, SUNASS and others) may take total control of EMFAPA TUMBES.  This implies the discontinuation of the board of directors and the shareholders and the payment of the debt with the assets of the water utility. EMFAPA TUMBES will become property of the national government or of the private companies who are attempting to negotiate a privatization transaction.  The process is temporarily detained by a judicial mandate, but this should not shield us from the gravity of the problem or reduce the responsibility of the mayors who have been accustomed to using the water utility for their political interests since the 1990s.   Meanwhile there has been little care or attention placed on efficiency, the quality of services and the issue of access for all to water and sanitation.

This declaration was released during the international seminar titled "The International Financial Institutions, Privatization, and Labor Rights in Peru," which took place in Lima, October 14 15, 2003 and included renowned representatives from Public Services International (PSI), a global trade union with 20 million members around the world.  Labor leaders from Peruvian water and sanitation unions took part in the seminar convened by FENTAP and PSI.

Finally, the leaders of FENTAP and the union of EMFAPA TUMBES S.A. would like to announce an upcoming public forum in the city of Tumbes to enable the organizations of civil society to express their perspectives with regard to the privatization, the role of the mayors, the bankruptcy, and the rights of the population to citizen oversight of EMFAPA TUMBES.  This forum will provide voice for the genuine perspectives of the population that must be heard and not manipulated by those interests that promote privatization.

By the National Board Council of the Federacion de Trabajadores de Agua Potable y Alcantarillado (FENTAP)

Luis Isarra Delgado, Secretary General
Jesus Alama Rivera, Vice Secretary General
Rolando Condori Quispe, Secretary