Hope for Change in Peru

Patricia Jones, UUSC Environmental Justice Program Manager, recently returned from a trip to Peru.

Tumbes, a municipality the farthest from Peru's capital, Lima, is 17 km from the border with Ecuador. Tumbes is also the name of the "department," the political subdivision, and the international river that meets the local water services demands.

The Civil Support Committee for Irrigation Area on the Right Bank of the Tumbes River is part of a coalition formed by UUSC partner the National Federation of Water and Sewerage Workers Unions of Peru (FENTAP). The coalition is working on the problems of water for users like the small agrarian producers in Tumbes. The small agricultural producers produce rice and bananas for local and national consumption.

The coalition worked to stop the privitization, management concession contract in this case, based on the terms of the contract -- terms which in their view are detrimental to the water services for the department of Tumbes, the municipality, and the agrarian users. Despite local opinion against the concession, it was given in July 2005 to Aguas Argentinas, a firm from Argentina. Angel Montero of the Civil Support Committee brought two actions against the concession -- a constitutional challenge to the contract, and a challenge to annul the agreement of the three mayors who allowed the concession contract.

The contract has several legal problems -- but one major one is that it is unconstitutional. In Peru, no foreign private firm can own, offer for sale, or buy (control) the natural resources of the country within 50 km of the border. The contract gives the Argentine company the right to buy and sell water.

The higher court on appeal delivered a damning historic decision: "Neither did the lower court read the constitution, nor did the ministry defend the public interest, as is their sacred trust".

Angel wanted to thank UUSC members for their support and interest -- UUSC supported a workshop where the users, workers, local nongovernmental agencies, and authorities reviewed and discussed the concession agreement, where a "mesa de dialogo" -- a dialogue table -- was established.

The courts are in recess for summer, back March 3. Angel has hope for a positive result. After meeting him and other colleagues in Peru, and learning of their well-thought-out proposal for a participatory, nonpolitical, public model to manage the water services, so should we.