By Robert A Emmanuel
The United Progressive Party (UPP) has called for public consultations on the Prime Minister’s plans to privatise part of the Antigua Public Utilities Authority’s (APUA) water services—despite expressing unwillingness to attend a Cabinet meeting to discuss the issue.
On his weekly Browne and Browne radio show, PM Gaston Browne expressed frustration with the continual lack of progress on the water distribution issue.
He said APUA has been asked to consider privatising part of its water services to local company, Caribbean Water Treatment, or a Trinidad and Tobago-based company.
The UPP, in a press release, said that they were “appalled that there has been no consultation with stakeholders ahead of a decision that will impact water rates” and said the move could impact the availability and access of potable water by underprivileged communities.
“Such access has been deemed a human right by the United Nations,” the release said.
The UPP leadership claimed that they had learned of other plans that would turn the water generated by APUA into a secondary or back-up source, forcing consumers to patronise another private business that would be the primary provider.
The political party argued that they were dissatisfied with the administration’s attempts to hold any meaningful dialogue with opposition MPs.
On Monday, Chief of Staff in the Prime Minister’s Office, Lionel Hurst, said Leader of the Opposition Jamale Pringle had rebuffed the opportunity to hold consultations with APUA in a Cabinet meeting scheduled for October 25.
“We were going to invite APUA officials to join the meeting so that any questions that the Leader of the Opposition had could be posed directly to the officials or any statement he wished to make could be posed to the APUA officials as well as the Cabinet.
“But he said he wasn’t interested in meeting with the Cabinet and therefore he wasn’t interested in meeting, period—at least that is how it was interpreted,” Hurst said.
But the UPP, including Pringle, said that the Cabinet meeting would be seen by some quarters as simply a photo opportunity and that the party wanted the APUA officials to be brought before Parliament to be questioned.
The Opposition Leader, during a parliamentary session in September, called for united, bipartisan approach to water challenges.
“The generation and the distribution of water are too important for already under-served residents to be excluded from the discussion table – especially when it is inevitable that they will be asked to dig deeper into their pockets for the service.
“It is not enough to humiliate managers and threaten the APUA staff in a crafty attempt to justify privatisation and to cover the administration’s failure to honour its 2014 promises,” the statement continued.
The UPP called for households and residents to demand that the Prime Minister hold public consultations before any decision on privatisation is taken.
