A protest was held at the carrickdale hotel on Friday evening last against
water metering. Members of the People Before Profit Alliance in
Dundalk, Dublin T.D Clare Daly and unaffiliated citizens attended the
protest at the Carrickdale where councillors from around the country
were invited at a cost of E165 per head to hear speakers from private
water metering companies in the UK. The conference was organised by
TGR (Think to Grow Rich) seminars and was promoting water metering in
the run up to the introduction of such metering as well as the
household charge. Speakers included a public relations executive from
Severn Water.
People Before Profit Dundalk activists only heard about the conference on Thurday evening and were very happy that twenty people could organise to show resistance to the plans in such a short time frame. It was a last minute dot com scenario but we made
it out on time to show our resistance to charges that will certainly
be unbearable for many people in County Louth in the coming years.
In Germany the average cost of water is now E750 per annum, in the UK
it's E567. Water metering and privatisation happened in the UK in 1989
and within five years the costs to the public had multiplied by 64%
whilst at the same time the companies multiplied their profits by
150%. In the first five years of privatisation in the UK nearly 20,000
households had their water supplies cut off and sixteen water
companies were prosecuted 260 time for non-maintenance.
None of the money collected by water metering will go to
improving the water supply system as it is part of the IMF/ECB
memorandum of understanding originally signed by the FF/Green
coalition but since ratified again by the FG/Labour government.
Dundalk activists attended the national meeting against the household charge
and water tax in the teacher's club in Dublin on Saturday where
hundreds from all over the country were in attendance and it was agreed a national
campaign of resistance would soon commence.
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