The water multinationals

The Mafia control of the water as an example of private use of a public resource
Water is one of the areas on which the mafia groups have exercised their dominion. The Sicilian Mafia is not just a criminal organization, but something more complex: the criminal groups operate within a system of relations, have relationships with the social environment, the economy, politics and institutions, criminal activities are intertwined with legal activities and pursue the purposes of enrichment and power. (1) No surprise then if the mafia has paid particular attention to a critical resource such as water, taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the political and institutional context.
With the establishment of a unified state in Italy there has been a policy of advertising and regulation of water and Sicily, particularly in the countryside of Palermo, has imposed the practice of private control exercised by guardians, the "plumbers", salaried by the users. The guards were in the majority linked to the Mafia, as well as the "gardeners", ie tenants and brokers.
The control of water has caused conflicts that give rise to mafia wars. In October of 1874, is killed in Monreale, near Palermo downtown home of the famous Arab-Norman cathedral, the plumber Happy Marquis. The crime is part of a conflict between two rival mafias, Gardeners and stoppaglieri, which is the first mafia war documented (2).
Subsequently, in August 1890, there will be another murder. This time to fall is the guardian of the water Psychiatric Institute of Palermo, Baldassare La Mantia, who had refused several times to encourage the brothers Vitale, gabelloti (renters) and mafia bosses of Palermo Altarello fraction of Baida. Interesting analysis of the situation from this murder is the superintendent Ermanno Sangiorgi in a series of reports which reconstructs a map of Mafia families and gives an image of it (an organization spread over the territory and centrally structured) very similar to that in the 80s of the twentieth century will be "discovered" by the statements of the mafia collaborators of justice:
This is known as the usurpations used to irrigate the gardens represent one of the sources of illicit gain of criminal association, and it is easy to see that the strength of the La Mantia besides offense constituted authority of the Mafia serious threat to the economic interests of the sect, being able to do school with the other guardians of the water not affiliated association. So should not seem strange that for this reason, apparently, and not in any other environment quite severe, Vitale and co-shareholders have determined, as they did, to kill. (3)
Water is an essential resource for the cultivation of citrus fruits in the years following the creation of the unitary state are exported to the national and international market, particularly in the United States, the main goal of emigration after the defeat of the first wave of the peasant movement (the Fasci Siciliani). The control of water and citrus market is in the hands of mafia groups that start with the first reports emigres in America, among which there are the founders of the mafia organization overseas.
The control will continue even after the water mafia and mafia will not hesitate to resort to murder if it will be put in doubt. In 1945, in Ficarazzi, near Palermo, in the middle of the plains planted with citrus, Alessandro D'Agostino is killed, the secretary of the Chamber of Labour, which had begun a struggle against the Mafia water. He had been "invited" to desist, but he continued his battle inside the mobilization of the peasants who collect hundreds of thousands of people engaged in the struggle for agrarian reform and democracy, colliding hard with the Mafia. (4)
The mafiosi are felt all the weight of their power within the irrigation consortia of the new institution. The best known example is the consortium of Upper and Middle Belice. The consortium institution in 1933, right in the fascist period, embracing an area of ​​about 106,000 hectares and was established for the construction of a dam on the river Belice. It remained inactive until 1944, due to the opposition of the Mafia, who feared "that the development of the initiative would remove the monopoly water and subvert the order of things (campierato and wear) until then under its direct control ". (5)
The only activity that the consortium fails to realize is the construction of roads that is not hampered by the mafia who organize the collection and supply of stones to the construction companies. Among them is the young Luciano Liggio mafia which is a trucking company and is not contrary to the activity of the consortium sensing that it can offer great opportunities. In fact, the construction of dams will be a great deal for the mobsters who know how to fit buying up most of the public funds. Example the story of the construction of the dam on the Belice Garcia, asked in a loud voice from the farmers and obtained after years of struggle. The boss Peppino Garda buys land, gets funding to improve crops and then sells them at a price far higher than that of purchase, the public entities involved in the construction of the dam. A speculation studied theoretically fully successful thanks to the complicity of the institutions.

The thirst for Palermo
The great "thirst of Palermo" of 1977-78 was the occasion for the opening of an investigation into the sources of water supply in the countryside of Palermo. Among the few existing sources of information was the Charter of the irrigation Sicilian drafted in 1940 by the section of Palermo Hydrographic Service of the Ministry of Public Works, which showed "a tangle of uses of waters of different backgrounds," and identified 114 sources and 600 wells that prelevavano water from groundwater fat. A more recent, 1973, prepared by the Ente Agricultural Development Agency (ESA) noted the existence of 1,469 wells drawing from the aquifer in the coastal strip.
These groundwater to the great importance which had to satisfy the water needs of the city and the countryside should have been included in the list of public waters, on the other hand are left to take advantage of the private and in the first row are the best known representatives of the Mafia . To tell the magistrate who conducted the inquiry, the magistrate Giuseppe Di Lello, the criterion in drawing up lists of public waters is the "respect" of private waters. In prga (general development plan of the aqueducts) prepared by the Ministry of Public Works and approved in 1968 included only 13 wells, two of which are saline and four being depleted by depletion of the aquifer, while there was no trace of the wells rich d 'water managed by the Greek Ciaculli, one of the most well-known mafia dynasties, and other mafia families: the Buffa, the Motisi, the Marcenò, the Teresi.
Obviously, the water table was impoverished by the real looting perpetrated by individuals and in particular by the Mafia and many wells had already been advanced in the intrusion of sea water which made ​​it impossible to use. The water should be a public good, however the Company municipal aqueduct of Palermo (AMAP) rents of private wells in the '70s and the Municipality of Palermo pays what should be its water about 800 million a year . Particularly significant: the private sector to dig the wells serving the means of ESA, that is a public body, and with little expense realize substantial business. The AMAP, in search of new waters, drill the poor areas of water, leaving the richest areas of private monopoly.
The responsibility for this situation have been clearly identified at various levels: from the Ministry of Public Works to the Regional, the Superintendency for Public Works, Office of Civil engineering and, of course, all'Amap. Some facts constituted the offense and the acts were sent to the public prosecutor, but the investigation was not followed.
Another survey conducted in 1988 ended with the indictment of several mobsters, owners of wells and some technicians, but the trial ended with a series of acquittals.

Hands on public works
On average each year rain in Sicily 7 billion cubic meters of water, almost triple the calculated demand in 2 billion and 482 million cubic meters (1 billion and 325 million for the irrigation of fields, 727 million to quench centers villages, 430 million for industrial uses). Yet Sicily suffers from thirst, and in some areas, for example in the provinces of Agrigento, Caltanissetta and Enna, is permanent emergency.
There are dams that for twenty years waiting to be completed, or have not been tested and may contain only a portion of the capacity. There are pipelines sieve (this is called loss of 50 per cent). This is not just the result of Mafia control on the water but, more generally, of a policy of public works in the name of waste and cronyism. The public work, regardless of the improvements it can bring to the living conditions of the population of a given territory, is used as an opportunity for speculation and hoarding of public money. Therefore, the work should last almost indefinitely and the final outcome does not matter. Around the work will form a cluster of public interest that involves entrepreneurs, administrators, politicians, mobsters who control the division of contracts, practicing lace on businesses, provide them with materials and services, or are directly involved in entrepreneurship.
This tangle of interests is the basis of what still happens in Sicily. None of the existing dams is authorized to be filled. Some cases, among the most egregious. The dam Ancipa could collect 34 million cubic meters of water, he's only 4 million. The dam is cracked, reported by more than thirty years. The dam Disueri might contain 23 million cubic meters, but must stop at 2 and a half million. The dam Furore, in the province of Agrigento, completed in 1992, it never went into operation. For more dams are missing connections. It is often said that there is no money, but in more than one case the money is there and you do not spend inertia of the authorities who continue to promote the supply by private individuals.
This past February, more than seven million cubic meters in danger of ending up in the sea, because the dams were not able to hold the water fall with heavy rainfall. In Sicily there are processions and religious ceremonies to pray for rain, but when there is rain you have to empty the dams. And this is not just the Mafia. It should be reiterated that the mafia has been able to operate, in the water sector as in other sectors, because it has enjoyed a favorable context and complicity, omission or active spread.
Given the fragmentation of management, often find it difficult to establish responsibility. In Sicily you should take water 3 regional, municipal utilities 3, 2 ​​mixed companies, 19 private companies, 11 consortia, 284 municipal management, consortia of 400 users and 13 other consortia.
Nth water emergency, it was decided to solve the problem by appointing Commissioner, the President of the Region. In 2000, an ordinance of civil protection for allocation of 54 billion for emergency works to be carried out within nine months, and possessed powers of rapid approval of the plans for the president of the region, but the failures of the region led the Minister of Public Works to appoint in February 2001, a commissioner of the State, the carabinieri General Roberto jucci. The Commissioner has been busy going around the island, drawing up a map of the reservoirs and proposed the establishment of an authority, that of a single body to oversee the whole issue of water in Sicily, managing jointly dams, the hydrogeological system, the supply pipelines, municipal systems. The proposal had already been made ​​by the county council in 1990 but was never realized. It seems that now something is smuova but between the Commissioner, appointed by the national government of the center-left, and the regional government established by the overwhelming victory of the center-right in the elections of June 24 problems have arisen that threaten to bring the situation to the point of first .

The water multinationals
The example of Sicily is not an isolated case and unrepeatable. If in recent years at the national and world have arisen or have been strengthened mafia-type criminal groups, ie, which have the complexity of the Sicilian Mafia, the water problem, as mentioned at the beginning, have imposed policies of privatization due to 'emergence of large business groups.
The "water giants" are mainly two French companies: Vivendi, formerly Générale des Eaux, Ondeo and the former Lyonnaise des Eaux. Vivendi is the most important player in the water sector but also operates in other areas: environment, energy, sanitation, transport, telecommunications (recently acquired the American company Universal Pictures and Canal +). It has an annual turnover of over 150 billion French francs and employs more than 140,000 people.
The Ondeo aims to oust the French sister and has an international role of respect: already present in 20 countries and in 1997 ran the water services in 14 major cities, including Manila, Budapest, Cordoba, Casablanca, Jakarta, La Paz , Potsdam, Indianapolis.
In Britain, the privatization of water was introduced in 1989 and the major British companies, particularly the Seven-Trent and Thames Water, also operating on an international level. The German electrical giant, RWE, operates as a multi-sectoral and company also has interests in the water sector. In Italy, following the Galli Law, companies such as the Roman Acea, the AEM Milan and Turin Amt have spread throughout the country and in other countries.
In France, where the privatization takes the form of delegation of the management of a public service to a private company, there was an average increase in the price of water by 50%, in Paris 154%; corporate profits have soared to 60-70% of total profits. Add to this the lack of transparency of concessions with the relative increase in the opportunities for corruption.
In the UK the privatization involves the expropriation of a common good, and companies have made ​​record profits exorbitant, for which you have devised an extraordinary tax. (6) In other countries, water costs have decreased for the rich and for increased the poor: the case of Manila, the Philippine capital. (7)

This invasion of large enterprises will make it increasingly difficult public policy of water resources and impose more and more a model based on "petrolizzazione water", ie the dictatorship of the market even on the water. In recent years there has been much talk of the "end of ideology" but in reality we have witnessed the triumph of liberalism which is also an ideology. Argue that the market is the best, if not the only, mechanism of regulation, it is a thesis that ideological simplifies the complexity of the real reducing everything to the economic dimension. Water is not a commodity that you can do without, you can choose to eat or not, but a common good is essential for living. All of this is ignored, and as has been done for oil, which was used to enrich the big multinationals and the sheikhs, leaving misery in much of the population of the producing countries, so now you want to do well for water.
The Water Manifesto
In 1998 in Lisbon non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders have launched the "Manifesto of the water."
The social actors who need to engage with these objectives must parliaments, civil society organizations, scientists, intellectuals and the media, trade unions. It proposes the establishment of a collective global "Water for Humanity" and already in 1998 a committee was formed promoter (8).
Italy has not been among the most active countries for a global water policy, however, even in our country is made up of a Committee for the World Water Contract and launched a manifesto Italian.
In Sicily you try to resume a battle that was the peasant movement on the basis of certain principles which refer to the Manifesto of water: to oppose the privatization and declare all of the assets aqueduct inalienable public land, creating a single large structure and regional public promote policies of self-government of the territories. (9) this requires the utmost vigilance against any interference of mafia groups interested in perpetuating their control, and relying on the fact that the pattern of use of a public resource privatized in recent years instead of regress has made ​​great strides