Like a tale told by an idiot
by Eric Jackson
The recent debate - should we call it that? - over how to fix the IDAAN
water and sewer utility is full of sound and fury, which signifies nothing
much. Mireya wants to spend $150 million out of the Fiduciary Fund created
by privatizations in the previous administration, and the opposition-controlled
le! gislature wants to spend $178 million from that fund. The executive branch
has taken out full-page ads in the daily newspapers promising to fix the urban
water system without additional costs to the public, and opposition leaders
have protested against these ads. Both sides have insisted that the other
side must adopt their plan, or else no plan will pass, and at the end of a
week-long special legislative session there was no agreement and the president
was threatening to take her protests to the streets.
Is THIS what Mireya is doing to revive the reputation of her corrupt and
ineffective administration? Is THIS the big victory that the opportunistic
PRD-Christian Democrat alliance will tout to the voters? It looks like a big
embarrassment for both sides from my point of view.
The water system needs fixing, and in order to upgrade and maintain it,
there will be costs to be borne by the public. It may come by way of higher
rates. It must certainly come by way of an infinitely huge increase for those
who now have no water meters and do not pay for their water. It may come by
way of the Fiduciary Fund, or some other part of the public treasury. One
thing’s for sure, and that is that fixing the system will not be free,
and any politician who suggests otherwise is a demagogue.
It may be that in this time of economic crisis, the best solution is not
the most efficient one. It may be much better for society to have 60 otherwise
unemployed workers doing with picks and shovels a job that a cr! ew of six
with heavy equipment could do faster.
It may be that in this time of budget difficulty, the funds to fix the Chilibre
water plant, extend water mains to places that presently do without, and to
replace all the leaky pipes in Colon and the metro Panama area should be taken
a little from this fund, a little from some other fund, and partly from an
increase in water fees. Understand that privatization is mere market dogma
that offers no solution in and of itself, but that whether the system is public
or private, the users will have to pay to fix it.
This is not an exact science. The politicians should calm down and reach
a compromise that accomplishes what needs to be done. If they choose to take
to the streets instead, people should turn out in force to ridicule them.
