New Delhi - At a meeting Monday to mark World Water Day in India's
parched capital New Delhi, experts from government bodies and
nongovernmental organizations formed a people's front to counter
growing water privatization by multinational companies (MNCs).

Around 500,000 residents are expected to sign a signature campaign
now underway to force the government of Delhi to resolve problems of
water-shortage and stop MNCs from controlling the precious natural
resource in this city, which is gripped by a water crisis.

"If that doesn't work, we are going to hit the streets," threatens
M.K. Mohanty, the chairman of the Bhagidari Apex Body, an
organization underlining the role of citizens' participation in
policy matters such as water and power.

"If the government cannot ensure water for us, then of what good is
it," he asks.

Called "Save our Water Campaign", the movement is pressing for the
immediate dismantling of a government-instituted body, the Delhi
Water Regulatory Commission, which experts charge has primarily been
set up to encourage the process of privatization.

Delhi, a city with a population of 13.78 million people, faces a
water shortage of 200 million gallons per day.

People fear that if MNCs are allowed to take charge of water, prices
will shoot up, making the resource more inaccessible for the city's
majority poor population.

Mohanty says, "According to our estimates, water bills will shoot up
40 times if it is privatized."

The emerging water market in India is estimated at US $2,000 million.
Private companies and MNCs are active in the bottled-water sector in
India, where a bottle of water costs 1,000 times more than tap water.

According to the New Delhi-based Research Foundation for Science,
Technology and Ecology, private agencies are permitted to control
water without any investments in the sector. The foundation's
additional director Afsar H. Jafri cites the example of a French
company, the Suez Ondeo Degremont, which controls a water plant in
Delhi.

"All the infrastructure for the plant - from pipelines to canals -
has already been financed by the Indian government," discloses Jafri.

He adds, "Why do we need privatization if it concerns our money, our
resources and our people?"

According to a World Bank study, the southern Indian city of Chennai,
along with New Delhi, is ranked the worst among 27 mega cities in
Asia when it comes to water availability.

The New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a
leading environment body, stresses that in most parts of the country,
water transmission and distribution networks are old and poorly
maintained. Low pressures and intermittent supplies allow back
siphoning, leading to water contamination.

"Water is typically available for only two-eight hours a day in most
Indian cities. The situation is even worse in summer when water is
available only for a few minutes, sometimes not at all," according to
the CSE.

The city's concerns coincide with fears of a global water crisis,
emphasized by a world report released Monday.

In the report called "Listening", the Water Supply and Sanitation
Collaborative Council - a Geneva-based United Nations body -
stresses that one out of every six people in the world - or about 1.1
billion - do not have safe water to drink. About 2.4 billion people
in the world do not have adequate access to sanitation.

The report warns against misspending billions of dollars in the name
of development. It calls for a new approach towards water -- "based
on working with and trusting local communities, focusing on the needs
of households and supporting the reform of governments and
institutions."

"Over the last three decades, billions of dollars have been invested
in water and sanitation to very little effect. From India to Bolivia,
Kenya to Nepal can be found the ruins of now-defunct water and
sanitation programs that have never yielded more than a fraction of
the benefits expected," the report reveals.

The main hurdle in the way of safe water is not lack of resources,
"it is a lack of willingness to learn from past failures and to
listen to whose who pioneered new approaches," it cautions.