Urbanities,
Vol. 4
·
No 2
·
November 2014
© 2014
Urbanities
44
The most striking demonstrations took place in September 2005, near the deadline for
private-companies’ bids for water service management. The Civic Committees of Naples and
Caserta organized events with stalls at the ATO’s headquarters. Zanotelli asked Neapolitan
citizens to display in their home, shop or office windows plastic bottles carrying the label,
‘No to the privatization of water’. The real turning point came in the Autumn of 2005, when a
large number of citizens gathered in the Assizes of Naples
13
decided to promote an Appeal
against the privatization of the integrated water services in the ATO. The Appeal was
nationally and internationally heralded by Riccardo Petrella
14
and Danielle Mitterrand.
15
It
was signed, among others, by prestigious Italian economists, jurists, artists, intellectuals and
representatives of the Civic Committees and movements for the defence of public water.
16
In
a short time, a compact front developed. Originally generated by the Committees for public
water and the active citizenship of large sections of the population, in time this movement
came to include a large proportion of Campania’s ruling-class. The text of the Appeal and
some writings on the water issue were collected by in a volume titled,
Water Management
and Fundamental Rights: A battle against privatization
(Lucarelli and Marotta 2006). This
battle ended in January 2006, when the ATO’s board decided to abolish the November 2004
decree on the privatization of water services. It seemed that in Naples a virtuous circle of
public water management, in accordance with people’s will had started. Yet this was not quite
the case. Since then, while failing to implement privatization, the local political class have
decided to give up and wait for the outcome of the Parliamentary debate on the reforms.
At the end of 2011, Naples chose to convert the municipal company Arin SpA
(Neapolitan Water Resources Limited Company) into a completely public non-profit
company named ABC (
Acqua Bene Comune
; literally, Water as a Common Good). In
addition to the difficulties posed by the central government, there were technical difficulties
related to existing legislation and the lack of previous experience in transforming a joint stock
into a public non-profit company. This involved the transition from a body regulated by
private law — the corporation — to one regulated by public law — the special company. This
transition was key to preventing any form of privatization, guaranteeing the direct public
management of water and keeping free market interests at bay. The key principle regulating
public companies is to balance the budget as opposed to generating profit. This operation was
13
This is an independent assembly of citizens that meets at Palazzo Marigliano, an ancient palace in
the city’s historical centre
14
This is the former President of the Water World Contract.
15
This is François Mitterrand’s widow, who was active on many environmental and human rights
issues.
16
The Appeal was signed by the economists Augusto Graziani, Massimo Marrelli, Riccardo Realfonzo
and Emiliano Brancaccio; by the jurists, Luigi Ferrajoli, Umberto Allegretti and Gaetano Azzariti; by
the Head of the Faculty of Education at the University of Naples Suor Orsola Benincasa, Lucio
d’Alessandro, by the Head of the Faculty of Arts at University of Naples Federico II, Eugenio
Mazzarella, by the Head of the Faculty of Economics, University of Naples Federico II, Achille Basile
and by the Head of the Law Faculty of the Second University of Naples, Lorenzo Chieffi, together
with several professors of law and economics.
