Water World.

In Blogby Fedayn14 Comments

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Veolia, the world’s largest player in the privatised water industry is spotted in Thurles sharing a van with an Irish Water logo.

Many might find it curious, that a company which controversially supported everything from Apartheid in Israel to union busting in America, is operating in Ireland. In fact Veolia (forgetting about the LUAS) has the contract on 6 Public Private Partnership water projects for excess of €20m each in Kildare, Mayo, Donegal, Westmeath and Wicklow.

Veolia boast on their website about having:

“Installed in excess of 20,000 meters on behalf of our current clients Galway City Council, Sligo County Council and Roscommon County Council. We also operate and maintain the works which includes maintenance of all the meters and infrastructure, reading, billing, revenue collection, debt recovery and IT systems.”

The name Veolia carries huge baggage.  Divestment and controversy follow them globally. Ruth Coppinger TD recently invoked them in a debate about Irish Water. She pointed to a survey Veolia carried out for DCC which estimated per person water usage at 148 litres daily. The government ignored this and chose Irish Water’s estimate of 98 litres.

The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign have this document of Veolia’s illegal activities in Palestine too.

Comments

  1. Earlier this year I wrote to Wicklow County Council about its contract with Veolia Water and asked that it consider passing a motion similar to Dublin City Council’s, which prohibits the entering into or renewal of any contract with Veolia while it is complicit in the Israeli apartheid regime. Only one Councillor bothered to respond. Human rights (water being one of them) are inconsequential to most political representatives.

  2. Veolia have been Ireland for a long time. I’m pretty certain they’re involved in water treatment and they’ve definitely consulted with the Government on water services pre Irish Water.. They also own the LUAS. Surprised to see their logo on the van alongside Irish Water…. but they haven’t just arrived. They’ve had a plant in Leixlip for ages.

  3. These guys have been given a 20 year contract / lease on the water treatment plant in Athy.

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