Jubilee South Asia

Pacific Movement on
Debt and Development
Asian Day of Action
Campaign Network on
Against Privatization
of Essential Services
the Right to Essential
Services and Natural
Resources
MAY 2010 VOLUME 1 ISSUE 2

A Compilation
of Written
Coordinated Actions on May 4, 2010
Materials and The Campaign Network on the Right to Essential Services and Natural Resources
Photos (RTRS) declared May 4 as the Asian Day of Action Against Privatization of Essential
Services. The Campaign Network includes members from more than 10 Asian
Countries.
The Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development (JS-APMDD) and the Campaign Network on the Right to
Essential Services and Natural Resources held the Asian Day of Action Against Privatization of Essential Services on
May 4, 2010. This day coincides with the 43rd Annual Governors Meeting of the Asian Development Bank in Taskent,
Unzbekistan. The actions highlighted the major role of the Bank in privatizing water, power, and other essential
services in the region.

This Bulletin is a consolidated report of the responses and activities of our members.

Table of Contents
Call for Coordinated Actions 2
JS – APMDD and RTRS Press Release 3

Bangladesh
Press Release: ADB’s Role in Privatization of Services Would Create
“State of Inhumanity in Peoples ‘Life 4
Media Coverage: Various Privatisation of Essential Services Decried 5
Press Release: CALL FOR OBSERVATION: May 4, 2010, Asian Day 6
of Action Against Privatization of Essential Services 7
Press Statement: Stop Privatization of Essential Services and Natural
Resources 8

Indonesia
Privatization Violated the Constitution of Republic of Indonesia:
Asian Day of Action Against Privatization of Essential Services and
Natural Resources 9
Media Coverage: Compilation of Photos taken by the Media

India
Photo Documentation of the Rally in Kolkata 10

Philippines
Press Release: Protest vs. ADB’s Role in Privatization of Essential
Services 10
 To all JS-APMDD and RTRS Members and Friends
Call for Coordinated Activities and Actions
On May 4 Asian Day of Action Against Privatization of
Essential Services
The Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development and the Campaign Network on the Right to
Essential Services and Natural Resources declare May 4 as the Asian Day of Action Against
Privatization of Essential Services. We choose to hold our Asian Day of Action on this day
as it coincides with the 43rd Annual Governors Meeting of the Asian Development Bank in
Taskent, Uzbekistan. This is to highlight the major role of the ADB in privatizing water,
power, and other essential services in the region.

We urge all our members and friends to organize activities and actions at the ADB offices in
their respective countries or other relevant places as part of our continued struggle to
resist and oppose the imposition and financing of privatization of water and power and other
essential services.

Through these actions, we will put forward the following demands:

1. For IFIs, especially the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and Asian
Development Bank to stop and reverse their policies imposing privatization and
liberalization of essential services.
2. For the IMF, WB and ADB to give reparations for the continuing negative impacts of
the privatization policy on peoples’ communities, health, food and livelihood, and
environment.
3. For all governments to stop and reverse the privatization of essential services.
4. For all governments to recognize and ensure peoples’ rights and access to
sufficient, affordable, clean, water and adequate, reliable, affordable, and
sustainable power services and energy.

We will give prominence to the following calls:

STOP PRIVATIZATION OF ESSENTIAL SERVICES AND NATURAL RESOURCES!

IFIs – GET OUT OF ASIA NOW!
UPHOLD PEOPLES RIGHT TO ACCESS WATER AND POWER SERVICES!
REPARATIONS FOR DESTRUCTION OF LIVES AND ENVIRONMENT!

Please share with us information on your plans and send us news and photos of your activities
immediately after they have taken place so we can help circulate and disseminate them.
 JS APMDD and RTRS Press Release – May 4, 2010
ADB’s Role in
privatization of essential
services protested in
different Asian cities
S ocial movements and civil society organizations
simultaneously held protest actions in different Asian cities
on Tuesday morning as the ADB Annual Governor’s
meeting was about to conclude.
The protest actions in the Philippines, Indonesia, India, and
Bangladesh raised critique and opposition to ADB’s role in the
privatization of essential services. All protesters are members of
a larger Asian movement called Asia and Pacific Movement on
Debt and Development (APMDD).
“The ADB bears a large share of the responsibility for the
privatization of water and power services in Asia. The
experiences of communities and peoples in Asia have shown
privatization of these services cause harm to peoples and the
environment”, said APMDD coordinator Lidy Nacpil.
According to her, millions of impoverished and marginalized
have much less access to safe, clean fresh water with the
deterioration of the quality of service and the sharp increases in
the cost of service resulting from privatization. The ADB has
been involved in privatizing water services in Indonesia, India,
Pakistan, South Korea, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Power
privatization-related projects in Philippines, Bangladesh,
Thailand, Pakistan, Indonesia, and at least nine states in India
received financing from ADB. Examples of these ADB-
financed projects are Philippines’ Electric Power Industry
Reform Act (EPIRA), India’s Power Sector Development
Programs, Nepal’s Melamchi Water Supply Project, and
Indonesia’s Citarum Water Resources Management Project.
Job Bordamante of the Freedom from Debt Coalition –
Philippines said that “after nine years of implementing EPIRA,
electricity rates have doubled and government regulation
remains incapable of protecting the consumers from the
repeated overcharging of private corporations.”
The Philippine’s case is an example of what Nacpil explained as
one major negative impact of power privatization - the
segmentation of consumers from the most profitable to the un-
electrified. She said “in India, while per unit cost of electricity
has gone down for the rich consumers; the less-consuming
households suffer from high tariffs and frequent power
interruptions.”
“Moreover, even before privatization projects become
operational, thousands have already been unjustly affected for
loss of land and livelihoods without consultation or
compensation, as experienced by the Nepalis in Melamchi and
Indonesians living along the Citarum river,” she added. Nacpil
further said that the ADB has seemed to look on blindly as its
own policies on public disclosure and resettlement is violated by
the projects it is involved with.
Md Samsudohha of Equity and Justice Working Group,
Bangladesh explained that the ADB’s approach to essential
services is “to ensure full-cost recovery plus profits combined
with placing the private sector at the helm.” “To illustrate, for
the US$50-million urban water supply sector reform of Dhaka,
capital city of Bangladesh, the bank requires that the water
utility be run as a commercial enterprise and as a consequence,
water tariffs are expected to increase by 200% from current
levels in nine years.”
According to APMDD, ADB’s faith in the private sector is
supported by increased lending. “The bank is determined to
scale up financing to push its agenda of giving the private sector
a major role in its programs. In fact, in its Long-term Strategic
Framework, the bank outlines its intent to “increase private
sector lending to 50% by 2020, from 12% in 2007,” explained
Muhammad Reza of KRuHA, an Indonesian Water Coalition.
“And yet, the exclusion of millions of peoples in Asia from their
most basic needs and right to access water and power services
continue to be the most vivid and undeniable testament to the
failure of ADB policies”, said Saeed Baloch, of the Pakistan
Fisherfolk Forum.
In its statement, the following demands are put forward:
1. For IFIs, especially the International Monetary Fund,
World Bank, and Asian Development Bank to stop
and reverse their policies imposing privatization and
liberalization of essential services.
2. For the IMF, WB and ADB to give reparations for
the continuing negative impacts of the privatization
policy on peoples’ communities, health, food and
livelihood, and environment.
3. For all governments to stop and reverse the
privatization of essential services.
4. For all governments to recognize and ensure peoples’
rights and access to sufficient, affordable, clean,
water and adequate, reliable, affordable, and
sustainable power services and energy.
Protesters are also part of the Campaign Network on the Right
to Essential Services and Natural Resources. The Network
declared May 4 as the “Asian Day of Action Against
Privatization of Essential Services.”
BANGLADESH
Press Release | May 4, 2010
ADB’s Role in Privatization of Services would
create ‘state of inhumanity’ in peoples’ life

T
oday, an alliance of ten rights
organizations, organized a protest
demonstration and human chain against
the role of the IFIs, especially of the
ADB, in the privatization of essential
services The rights group includes AMKS, DORA,
Krishani Sohova, EquityBD, LEAD Trust , LaVia
Campesina Bangladesh, MFTD, Online
Knowledge Center , PRADIP and RCSV.
ADB‟s approach to essential services is “to
ensure full-cost recovery plus profits combined
with placing the private sector at the helm.” “To
illustrate, for the US$50-million urban water
supply sector reform of Dhaka, the bank requires
that the water utility be run as a commercial
enterprise and as a consequence, water tariffs
are expected to increase by 200% from current
levels in nine years.”

The alliance, led by Equity and Justice Working Millions of impoverished and marginalized
Group Bangladesh, organized this protest in people living in the urban slums have much less
front of the National Press Club, Dhaka during access to safe, clean fresh water thus the sharp
43rd Annual Governors Meeting of ADB in increases in the cost of service resulting from
Taskent, Uzbekistan as swsthis meeting privatization would create „state of inhumanity‟ in
highlighted the major role of the ADB in the urban cities.
privatizing water, power, and other essential
services in the region. The rights group across
Asia declared May 4 as the Asian Day of Action
against Privatization of Essential
Services and organized similar
protest actions also in the
Philippines, Indonesia, India,
and Pakistan while they raised
critique and opposed ADB‟s role
in the privatization of essential
services.

In a written press statement,

secretary general of EquityBD,
Md Shmasuddoha, said that
ADB and allied international
financial institutions are trying to
promote corporatization and
commercialization of essential
service sector sector, especially
commercialization of health,
agriculture, energy and water
sector. He explained that the

Mustafa Kamal Akanda of EquityBD said that we
are seeing the result of the commercialization of
agricultural inputs, especially of seeds, that
made farmers completely dependent on
multinational seed companies and made
agriculture system costly and unsustainable
wherein 70 percent of country‟s workforce
employed.
media coverage
Privatisation of essential
services decried –May4,2010
Human rights activists on Tuesday formed
human chains to protest at the government’s
move to privatise essential services like
education, health, water and power supply.
They accused international financial institutions
including the Asian Development Bank of
promoting corporatisation and commercialisation of
essential services.
Equity and Justice Working Group and Sushasaner
Jonye Pracharavijan formed separate human
chains in front of the National Press Club on the
occasion of „Asian day of action against
privatization of essential services‟.
Firoze Ahmed of Lead Trust said that since the
establishment of the IFIs, these institutions are
imposing privatization conditionalities to the poor
countries as the pre-condition of having loan
support. Although ADB in its own definition
characterized poverty as the deprivation of
access to essential goods but the activities and
policies of this institution restraining poor
peoples‟ access to the essential services through
promoting privatization. In fact, ADB financing in
Bangladesh does not consider this humanistic
aspect of poverty, he added.
Fayed Ahmed of said, as we see, since a few
decades of development financing of the IFIs,
the pace of poverty alleviation is frustrating; 41
percent of country‟s population lives on less than
one dollar a day, and a staggering 84 percent
live on less than two dollars a day. In fact, ADB
neither financing in the public service sectors e.g.
health, education, agriculture etc. nor allowing
government to finance these sectors, which is
increasing poverty and economic disparity.
The day is also being observed in other Asian cities,
concurrent with the ADB‟s annual governor‟s
meeting which concludes in the city of Tashkent of
Uzbekistan.
The protestors in Dhaka urged the government to
ensure poor peoples‟ rights and access to sufficient
and affordable essential services.
Equity and Justice Working Group chief executive
Mohammad Samsudohha said the ADB‟s approach
to essential services was to ensure full-cost
recovery plus profits combined with placing the
private sector at the helm.
„For the proposed $50-million urban water supply
sector reform project in the capital, the bank
stipulates that the water utility service be run on
commercial basis which is expected to increase the
cost by 200 per cent in the next nine years,‟ he
added.
http://www.newagebd.com/2010/may/05/nat.html
 Press Release
CALL FOR OBSERVATION:
May 4, 2010, Asian Day of Action Against
Privatization of Essential Services
Dhaka, May 3, 2010 - VOICE, rights-based research and advocacy organization based in
Dhaka called for solidarity to observe the Asian Day of Action against Privatization of
Essential Services. The Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) and the
Campaign Network on the Right to Essential Services and Natural Resources (RTRS)
declared May 4 as the Asian Day of Action Against Privatization of Essential Services while
VOICE being its members called for strengthening civil society voices against blanket
privatization of essential services including heath and education. The day of action coincides
with the 43rd Annual Governors Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Taskent,
Uzbekistan. The observation of the day aims at standing against the ADB‟s role in privatizing
water, power, and other essential services in the region.

Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, executive director of VOICE urges all sects of society to resist and
oppose the imposition and financing of privatization of water and power and other essential
services. He said that due to privatization process in Bangladesh, people have already been
affected and the poor became the worst sufferers. He further added to stop financing private
sector monopolization of water, power, health and education sectors in Bangladesh.

Lidy Nacpil, the coordinator of Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD)
also the initiator of the Action Day, expressed her solidarity and demanded to continue
struggle in realizing people‟s rights to essential services opposing corporatization and
privatization of essential services.

VOICE and APMDD including its members in the region put 4-points demands for the
International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and Governments:

1. IFIs, especially the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and Asian
Development Bank should stop and reverse their policies imposing privatization and
liberalization of essential services.
2. The IMF, World Bank and ADB to give reparations for the continuing negative
impacts of the privatization policy on peoples‟ communities, health, food and
livelihood, and environment.
3. All governments should stop and reverse the privatization of essential services.
4. All governments should recognize and ensure peoples‟ rights and access to
sufficient, affordable, clean, water and adequate, reliable, affordable, and
sustainable power services and energy.
Also the civil society members and NGOs are urged to raise voices against unjust domination of
the international financial institutions and to uphold people‟s right to access water and power
services along with demand for reparations for destruction of lives and environment.
 STOP PRIVATIZATION May 4, 2010 - To observe the Asian Day of Action
against the privatization of essential services and
OF ESSENTIAL SERVICES natural resources on May 04, 2010, Sushashoner
Jonno Procharavijan-SUPRO organized a human

AND NATURAL chain in front of National Press Club Dhaka. From

the human chain, speakers strongly demanded to
ensure effectiveness of public rights of essential
RESOURCES
services including water & power, education & health and called for boycotting the loan-support from World
Bank, IMFs and ADB. They demanded to keep the essential services out of the service related agreement
GATS- imposed by World Trade Organization (WTO).

Deputy Director of SUPRO Mohammad Shahidullah, Coordinator Qumrunnessa Nazly, Dr. Mustafizur Rahman,
Associate Coordinator Alim-Al-Razy, Iqbal Uddin and Sara Zaman and Program Officer Kazi Rahman raised
the demands at the chain. Different likeminded organizations, SUPRO Dhaka Campaign Group and Students
representatives from Dhaka University, Dhaka College participated in the human chain. In expressing solidarity
with the concerns of privatization of essential services and natural resources, Hirok Sarder from Green Voice
of Dhaka University, Akher Ali from Dhaka College spoke on the occasion. Mentioning the constitutional
obligations of Bangladesh, speakers strongly protested the privatization trend of IFIs including World Bank,
IMF, and ADB. They demanded to stop the privatization & commercialization of the essential services including
water & power, education & health.
Speakers also urged to ensure the
accessibility of the marginal & deprived
poor people to these services.

SUPRO‟s demands on the Asian Day of

Action:

1. Stop the privatization &

commercialization of essential services
including water & power, Education &
health;
2. Boycott the privatization policies
imposed by IFIs including World Bank,
IMFs and ADB;
3. Pay damages for the negative impact on
live and livelihoods of people due to privatization;

4. Ensure the accessibility and rights of

essential services including water & power,
Education & health for the citizens;
5. Undertake necessary initiatives free
from the influence of multinational
company to concentrated and
independent country capacity;
6. Formulate renewal fuel policy, support
and establish skilled institutions; and
7. Establish people‟s ownership & control
over natural resources.
INDONESIA
PRIVATIZATION VIOLATED THE CONSTITUTION
OF REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA
Asian Day of Action against Privatization of Essential Services and Natural Resources

Jakarta, May 4th 2010. As mandated by the

Constitution of Republic of Indonesia (UUD 1945),
especially Article 33, “land, water and other resources
contained therein are controlled by the State and
used for the greatest prosperity of the people.
However, various kinds of legislation even have
legalized the involvement of private parties in the
control and distribution of the people's basic needs.

The various laws that have emerged as the Law of

Water Resources (No. 7/2004), the Investment Law
and the Law of Electricity, Gas Law, Plantation Law,
Law of Intellectual Property Right, become a threat to
the survival of the people, because public goods that
should be a right of every citizen are treated as
commodity in order to maximize the business profit.

These conditions are fully supported by the International

Financial Institutions with the involvement of the Asian
Development Bank through running debts. More than
four decades Asian Development Bank (ADB) together
with the World Bank has become two main driving
forces on goods and public services privatization,
especially water and electricity. ADB has been involving
in the practice of water privatization in Indonesia, India,
Pakistan, South Korea, Nepal and Sri Lanka. ADB is
also financing the privatization of electricity in the
project in the Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan,
Thailand, Indonesia, India and many other places.
Privatization of public services has also led to increase
the sustainable and escalating costs borne by the
people. Besides, privatization has caused loss of water
and electricity access for the poor, the monopoly of
natural resources by private companies, the eviction of
the people and environmental damage.
ADB believes that "economic growth is the driving force
to reduce poverty in Asia, which in turn requires the new
strategy of a big leap in funding the private sector.
Support for the private sector increased from 12% in
2007 to 50% in 2020."
ADB's strategy in 2020 is none other than the
escalation of efforts to increase the level of privatization
in Asia, especially Indonesia. Therefore in the
framework of Asian Day action against the privatization
of public services and natural resources, we, together
with all social movements in Asia calls the State for:
 Restoring the public goods (common goods)
as publicly-owned goods, as a basic
requirement that underpins the achievement
of a prosperous life.
 Stopping the non-state actor involvement in
the ownership and service of basic,
fundamental and essential needs and rights of
the people which lead to the practices of
privatization and state corporatism.
 Urging the elimination of debt from ADB and
World Bank which have been promoting
privatization and economic, social, cultural
and environment damage, and the restoration
for the damage.
Groups: KRuHA, WALHI, SPI, KAU, debt WATCH
Indonesia, LS-ADI
 media coverage
JAKARTA, 4/5 - STOP PRIVATIZATION

Two activists from the Indonesian Forum for

Environment (WALHI) and the Anti-Debt
Coalition (YOU) unfurled a banner urging
people to stop the privatization of basic rights
by private parties, at the Roundabout HI,
Jakarta, Tuesday (4/5). They urged the
Indonesian government to stop the non-state
involvement in ownership and service needs of
people's basic rights such as the delivery by
the state privatization agency and corporate
investors. PHOTO ANTARA/Yudhi
Mahatma/ed/nz/10

http://www.antarafoto.com/bisnis/v12729606
01/hentikan-privatisasi

PRIVATIZATION VIOLATES RI's CONSTITUTION

Activists from various sectors of society staged a protest action in

Jakarta against privatization which they say violated the constitution
of Indonesia, Tuesday (4/5).

The protesters urged the elimination of debt from ADB and World
Bank which has been promoting privatization and economic, social
and cultural environment damage, and the restoration for the
damage. PHOTO inilah.com/Wirasatria

http://foto.inilah.com/view.php?id=72961
CLEAR DEBT

Activists from various sectors of the community

staged a protest against privatization which
they say violated RI‟s Constitution in Jakarta,
Tuesday (4 /5). The action urged the
elimination of debt from the ADB and World
Bank which has been promoting privatization
and economic, social and cultural environment
damage. PHOTO MI / M Irfan

http://www.mediaindonesia.com/foto/3863/H
apus-
Utanghttp://foto.inilah.com/view.php?id=729
61
INDIA PHILIPPINES
Protest vs. ADB’s
On the occasion of Asian Day of Against
Privatization of Essential Services, 4th May 2010
National Hawker Federation organized a grand rally
at Esplanade area at 6 pm. More than 1000 people
took part at the rally. The one-hour rally covered
the most crowed areas of Kolkata Esplanade.
role in privatization
of essential services
May 4, 2010
MANILA, Philippines – The Freedom from Debt
Coalition staged a protest action outside the Asian
Development Bank‟s headquarters here Tuesday,
blaming the Bank for its role in the unabated
privatization of vital public assets, including the 246-
MW Hydro-Electric Power Plant (HEPP) component of
the Angat multi-purpose dam in Bulacan, to private
and transnational corporations.

Said protest action was part of simultaneous actions in

various Asian countries such as India, Indonesia,
Bangladesh and Pakistan, and coincided with the
conclusion of the 43rd ADB Annual Governor‟s
meeting in Taskent, Uzbekistan. The Jubilee South –
Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development (JS-
APMDD) and the Campaign Network on the Right to
Essential Services and Natural Resources (RTRS)
declared May 4 as the “Asian Day of Action against
Privatization of Essential Services.” FDC is an active
member of the two campaign networks.

“The ADB bears a large share of the responsibility for

the privatization of water and power services in Asia.
The experiences of communities and peoples in Asia
have shown privatization of these services cause
harm to peoples and the environment,” said JS-
APMDD coordinator Lidy Nacpil.

She added that millions of impoverished and

marginalized have much less access to safe and clean
fresh water with the deterioration of the quality of
service and the sharp increases in the cost of service
resulting from privatization.
The ADB has been involved in privatizing water
services in Indonesia, India, Pakistan, South Korea,
Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Power privatization-related
projects in Philippines, Bangladesh, Thailand,
Pakistan, Indonesia, and at least
nine states in India received financing from ADB.
Examples of these ADB-financed programs are
Philippines‟ Power Sector Restructuring Program
that led to the legislation of the Electric Power
Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), India‟s Power
Sector Development Programs, Nepal‟s
Melamchi Water Supply Project, and Indonesia‟s
Citarum Water Resources Management Project.

Job Bordamonte, FDC advocacy coordinator,

warned Metro Manila consumers to expect a soar
in the price of water once the sale of the Angat
HEPP is finalized.

“Since the prices of National Power Corporation‟s

plants are usually high, private institutions
recover by overpricing their generated power to
be sold to the distribution utilities, such as
Meralco, and the Wholesale Electricity Spot
Market (WESM). Distribution utilities would then
pass the burden to the consumers to get back
what was taken away from them,” Bordamonte
explained.
On April 28, Korea Water Resources Corp. (K-
Water) submitted the highest bid, amounting to
$440.8 million, among six qualified bidders.
According to FDC, the Angat Dam serves a
crucial function as a water source more than a
power generation plant. It is the single-most
important water source of Metro Manila as it
provides 97 percent of the water needs of at least
12 million residents of the country‟s capital. It
also irrigates some 31,000 hectares of farms
across 20 towns and municipalities in Bulacan
and Pampanga.
As stated in RA 9136 or the Electric Power
Industry Act (EPIRA), all NPC-owned generation
plants, including Angat HEPP, will be privatized
by the government.
Earlier, FDC urged the government, through
Power Sector Assets and Liabilities
Management Corp. (PSALM), to
stop the sale of the Angat HEPP.
The group said that the sale of
Angat HEPP will violate the
people's right to water, jeopardize
irrigation of farm lands, endanger
the lives of communities living near
the dam since it also serves as a
flood controller, and put the job
security of NPC employees at risk.