The government are pushing ahead with plans for water reform which will see massive job losses, the running down of services and the introduction of charges for water use.

Water charges for Northern Ireland are set to be amongst the highest in the UK as the Department for Regional Development lay the ground work for a charging regime aimed at making the water service here ‘self financing’.

The charging regime is likely to be based on property value and there will be no exemptions. A 25% discount has been suggested for people claiming certain benefits, while the charge will be increased across the board to subsidise this ‘assistance’. In fact assisting the poorest and most vulnerable in our society is not at all what this is about, rather, it is a cynical manipulation in an attempt to secure greater public and political acceptance.

Charges are set to be the highest in the UK – bearing in mind that sewerage and water charges in Scotland are around £1,300 per year!
Meanwhile the new Water Services boss is on a salary of £150,000 plus bonuses to ensure they push this through.

The foundation for the charging regime is to be laid in April with the entire infrastructure in place for April 2006. In the meantime the Water Service aim to cut 350 jobs initially and centralise work. The total number of jobs lost could be up to 900. Job losses and centralisation of services will further erode services in outlying and rural districts.

While Minister John Spellar has stated that privatisation is not an option ALL the options being looked at are privatisation by different means.

The Coalition Against Water Charges is organising a series of rallies in towns and cities across the north culminating in a rally against water charges in Belfast in May. Organise! will be supporting these events and working to build a mass campaign based on non-payment.

While the implementation process may have been delayed slightly while the DRD work on their charging regime we can’t fool ourselves into thinking that we can relax our opposition. We must seize the moment and actively build a campaign across working class communities to defeat the water tax.

Thatcher’s Poll Tax and more recently attempts to impose water charges in the south were both defeated by mass direct action and non-payment, only such a campaign will defeat the water tax here. Working class people can’t afford to pay for their water twice (ignore the lies that we don‘t pay for our water, we do, in our rates). We can’t afford to subsidise privatisation.
We can’t pay and we won’t pay! This must be the clear message of the campaign against water charges.
Jason