Tuesday, December 17, 2019

TOILET CRISIS IN INDIA
4 yrs of Swachh Bharat Mission (Clean India Mission),but 38% govt hospitals in rural India don't have staff toilets

Over 72,000 government health centres in rural India don't have toilet facility for their staff, while nearly 40,000 are functioning without electricity. IndiaToday.in takes a look at the country's rural health infrastructure.

On October 2, 2014 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Mission (Clean India Mission), he said the aim was to improve India's sanitation. Besides general cleanliness, PM Modi laid emphasis on constructing toilets, saying nearly 60 per cent people in rural India were still defecating in the open. He termed this practice as a "blot" that India must clean itself of.

Since then, the government has repeatedly showcased Swachh Bharat Mission as one of its successes.

Mukesh Rawat New Delhi December 4, 2019
(The author tweets at @mukeshrawat705 and can also be reached on Facebook.)

Thousands of sub centres, PHCs and CHCs across rural India don't
even have basic facilities like regular water supply, electricity and toilets.
(Photo: Reuters file photo)

But, while the government may pat its back with its claims of constructing over 9.5 crore toilets across India since 2014, an IndiaToday.in analysis of the latest data on rural health infrastructure reveals that 38 per cent government health centres in rural India don't have toilets for their staff.

This data was accessed from Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan's written reply in the Lok Sabha on November 22, which in turn is based on 'Rural Health Statistics 2018', a report prepared by the central government.

In 10 states and three Union Territories, more than 50 per cent government health centres in rural areas are without staff toilets. These include large states like Telangana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.

These health centres include sub centres, primary health centres (PHCs) and community health centres (CHCs)--the backbone of India's public health services.

If we breakdown this data, we find that as on March 31, 2018, at least 60 per cent sub centres, 18 per cent PHCs and 12 per cent CHCs in India were without staff toilets.
Sub centres are the smallest units in India's rural health infrastructure. They are under the charge of an ANM (auxiliary nurse midwife) and have been set-up to ensure availability of last mile trained medical services in rural areas. They provide all primary healthcare services.

A PHC on the other hand is a government hospital that acts as the first contact point with local community and generally caters to around 25 villages. It is under the charge of a qualified MBBS doctor who is assisted by a pharmacist, 4-5 nurses and other medical staff. PHCs treat patients with routine illness and are also equipped to handle delivery cases, organise sterilisation camps etc.

Meanwhile, a CHC is a much bigger hospital, generally with 30 beds and 5 medical experts, including a surgeon and more than 10 nurses. A CHC covers nearly 120 villages.

STATES: WORST AND THE BAD ONES

Among major states, Telangana fares worst when it comes to toilet facilities at health centres. The state has 4,744 sub centres in rural areas and none of them have a staff toilet. Overall, 86 per cent government health centres in rural Telangana don't have such toilets. (The overall figure includes data for PHCs and CHCs.)

The situation in Telangana is diametrically opposite from its parent state, Andhra Pradesh, where all 7,458 sub centres have staff toilets. Not just this, all PHCs and CHCs in Andhra Pradesh too are equipped with such toilets.

Throughout the campaign for a separate Telangana state, leaders from Telangana alleged that the region was neglected and faced discrimination that stunted its progress.

Besides Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh is the only other major state to have staff toilets in all government hospitals. Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India, too fares far better than most states. Only nine per cent government health centres in rural Uttar Pradesh are without toilets for staff.

On the other hand, Rajasthan and Gujarat, two big and important states, fare poorly on this count. In Rajasthan, 85 per cent sub centres in rural areas don't have staff toilets while the figure for Gujarat is 73 per cent. The condition in West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand bears a similar resemblance.
WHY DO HOSPITALS NEED STAFF TOILETS?

Hospital staff works in shifts of long durations during which they attend a number of patients. In absence of toilets, they are often forced to wait for hours before they can answer nature's call. This physical inconvenience can have an adverse impact on their concentration, which in turn has cascading effects on their work.

Besides, it is important for hospital staff to have separate toilets to protect them from pathogens in patients' waste.

In a 2019 report on water, sanitation and hygiene at health care centres the World Health Organisation (WHO) said 20 per cent of these centres globally don't have sanitation facilities, thus impacting close to 1.5 billion people.

The WHO says basic sanitation facility at a health care centre should include at least one toilet dedicated for staff, at least one sex-separated toilet with menstrual hygiene facilities, and at least one toilet accessible for people with limited mobility.

"No one goes to a health care facility to get sick. People go there to get better, to deliver babies, to get vaccinated. Yet, hundreds of millions of people face an increased risk of infection by seeking care in health facilities that lack basic necessities, including water, sanitation, hygiene and health care waste services," the report said.

Sanitation conditions at a primary health centre in Bihar.
(Photo: GettyImages file photo)

Stressing on the need for proper sanitation, WHO report said absence of such facilities can spread disease instead of preventing them. Calling sanitation a human right, it said such services in health care facilities are essential to deliver high-quality care that improves health, welfare and dignity of patients and staff, besides improving health outcomes.

NO SEPARATE TOILETS FOR MEN / WOMEN

In 2014, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered his first address to the nation on Independence Day, he expressed displeasure at the lack of separate toilets for girls in schools and said it was a key reason that kept many girls out of school.

"All schools in the country should have separate toilets for girls," Modi said, setting a one-year target to achieve this.

However, while the prime minister set a target to build sex-separated toilets at schools, his message failed to have any noticeable impact on health care facilities. (See chart below)

Nearly 61 per cent of all government hospitals in rural India are without separate toilets for men and women.

Basic sanitation facility at a health care centre should include at least one toilet dedicated for staff, at least one sex-separated toilet with menstrual hygiene facilities, and at least one toilet accessible for people with limited mobility.- World Health Organisation

In Andhra Pradesh, while all 7,458 sub centres have toilets, none of them have separate toilets for men and women.

Overall, Kerala and Telangana have the highest percentage of government hospitals without sex-separated toilets (86 per cent each), followed by Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.

In 21 states and Union Territories more than 50 per cent rural hospitals don't have separate toilets for men and women. The overall figure includes data for sub centres, PHCs and CHCs.

While toilets are essential for patient care and wellbeing of hospital staff, there are thousands of government health units in rural India which don't even have regular water supply.

As on March 31, 2018, there were 26,360 sub centres and 1,313 primary health centres in rural India that did not have a regular source of water.

A woman collects water using a hand-pump at a Primary Health Centre in Latur, Maharashtra. (Photo: Reuters file photo from 2016)

Stressing on the need of water supply at health care facilities, the WHO says availability of sufficient quantities of safe water is important for health centres to provide quality services.

"Without water, a health care facility isn't a health care facility. Water is essential for cleaning rooms, beds, floors, toilets, sheets and laundry. It is central to patient experiences of health care, as it enables them to remain hydrated, to clean themselves, and to reduce the risk of infections," WHO says in a 2019 report on health care.

"No one goes to a hospital to get sick. People go there to get better. Yet, hundreds of millions of people face an increased risk of infection by seeking care in health facilities that lack basic necessities, including water, sanitation and hygiene.
- World Health Organisation

The WHO estimates that globally around 25 per cent health care facilities don't have basic water services impacting around 2 billion people.

Data for India show 45 per cent PHCs in Jharkhand are functioning without regular water supply, while in Nagaland and Manipur the figures are 44 and 43 per cent, respectively.

When it comes to sub centres, there are states where more than 50 per cent sub centres don't have regular water source. Manipur leads this list with 79 per cent sub centres devoid of regular water supply, followed by Mizoram (62 per cent) and Meghalaya (60 per cent).

Among large states, Bihar has 49 per cent sub centres without regular water supply, Jharkhand (53 per cent), Rajasthan (34 per cent) and Odisha (30 per cent).

Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Goa and Tamil Nadu are among states where all sub centres have regular water supply.

OUT OF POWER

Besides construction of toilets under the Swachh Bharat Mission, the Modi government also counts rural electrification among its success. The government in 2018 claimed it has achieved the arduous target of 100 per cent rural electrification, a claim contested aggressively by the Opposition. Media reports also don't support the government's claim.

These tall claims aside, records show nearly 40,000 government health units (39,122 sub centres and 823 PHCs) across rural India are still operating without electricity supply
In absence of electricity supply, these health centres have limited utility in helping people in villages during emergencies, especially at night and under unfavourable weather conditions when travelling to bigger hospitals is difficult-something that is common in remote areas.

In villages, a PHC generally is the closest government health facility with a qualified doctor. Most pregnancy cases at the time of delivery are taken to PHCs and only when there is a complication, the case is referred to a CHC or district hospital. As such, it is important for PHCs to have round-the-clock electricity supply.

The situation is particularly alarming in Goa and Jharkhand where 60 and 43 per cent PHCs respectively don't have electricity supply.

The National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-4 revealed that nearly 25 per cent childbirth in rural India don't take place inside a hospital.

In Nagaland, 76 per cent deliveries in rural areas don't take place in hospitals. In Arunachal Pradesh this was 56 per cent, in Jharkhand 43 per cent, Manipur 40 per cent, Bihar 37 per cent and in Uttarakhand 36 per cent.

The high prevalence of non-institutional deliveries in these states makes the role of sub centres very important. The sub centres are under the charge of trained ANMs who are skilled to handle normal delivery cases. A sub centre generally caters to 4-5 villages and is easily accessible to villagers, even in harsh weather conditions.

Against this backdrop, when thousands of health centres in rural India are bereft of even basic amenities like regular water supply, electricity and toilets, healthcare of the common people in rural India gets seriously compromised, besides exposing patients and medical staff to greater risks.

---30---

https://worldtoilet.org

What’s UN World Toilet Day?

World Toilet Organization was founded on 19 November 2001 and the inaugural World Toilet Summit was held on the same day, the first global summit of its kind. We recognised the need for an international day to draw global attention to the sanitation crisis – and so we established World Toilet Day on 19 November. World Toilet Day has continued to garner support over the years, with NGOs, the private sector, civil society organisations and the international community joined in to mark the global day.

https://worldtoilet.org

World Toilet Organization - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › World_Toilet_Organization

http://logodesignfx.com/wto-logo-2-3

Founder

Jack Sim, Founder of World Toilet Organization (WTO)

India
No, Pakistan's non-Muslim population didn't decline from 23% to 3.7% as BJP claims
During the debate on the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Parliament, the BJP repeatedly claimed that population of religious minorities in Pakistan has declined from 23% in 1947 to 3.7% in 2011. Analysis of official data however shows this argument is faulty.

Mukesh Rawat New Delhi December 12, 2019 UPDATED: December 12, 2019 23:59 IST

It is a fact that religious minorities have been persecuted and face discrimination in Pakistan and Bangladesh, but the figures quoted by the BJP are untrue. (Photo: Reuters file)

While moving the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said at the time of Independence, non-Muslims comprised 23 per cent of Pakistan's population and that by 2011 their share was reduced to 3.7 per cent.

With regards to Bangladesh, he claimed that in 1947, non-Muslims comprised 22 per cent of its population and their share in 2011 fell to 7.8 per cent.

Amit Shah's verbatim quote in Hindi: "1947 main Pakistan ke andar alpasankhyakon ki aabadi 23 pratishat thi, aur 2011 main wog ghat kar 3.7 pratishat ho gayi. Bangladesh main 1947 main aplsankhyakon ki aabadi 22 pratishat thi aur 2011 main wo kam ho kar 7.8 pratishat ho gayi. Kahan gaye ye log? Ya toh unka dharm parivartan hua. Ya wo maar diye gaye, ya bhaga diye gaye, ya Bharat aa gaye."

(Refer to Amit Shah's speech from the video on his Twitter profile below from 9min 40sec onwards for this quote.)
Replying on Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 in Lok Sabha. https://t.co/L2A9ZcbCny
Amit Shah (@AmitShah) December 9, 2019

On Wednesday, while moving the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha, Amit Shah reiterated his claim, saying Pakistan and Bangladesh have seen a decline of up to 20 percentage points in their populations of religious minorities.

"Whan ke alpshankyak kahan gaye? Ya toh vo maar diye gaye, ya unhone Bharat main sharan liya (Where did the minorities disappear in Pakistan and Bangladesh? Either they were persecuted or they took shelter in India)," Amit Shah said in the Rajya Sabha.

This has been a position maintained by the Bharatiya Janata Party and its supporters. To highlight the persecution of religious minorities in Pakistan (particularly of the Hindus), the BJP and right-wing Hindu organisations in India have been citing similar figures to argue that non-Muslims were brutally persecuted in an Islamic Pakistan after the Partition of 1947.

But how true are these numbers? Has population of non-Muslims in Pakistan really shrunk to 3.7 per cent today from a high of 23 per cent? What is the basis of this claim?

IndiaToday.in's analysis of Pakistan's Census data shows that these claims are faulty.

TRACING PAKISTAN's NON-MUSLIM POPULATION

Pakistan got its identity as a separate nation on August 14, 1947. Back then, Pakistan also included present-day Bangladesh which was known as East Pakistan. These two territories were carved out as a new independent nation with Islam as its state religion.

There is no authentic and reliable official data on the religious composition of Pakistan's population in 1947. While presenting the data on religious composition of Pakistan in 1947 in his speech, Home Minister Amit Shah did not mention his source either. A similar figure was mentioned in an article published by the Hudson Institute in 2013. The artilce 'Cleansing Pakistan of Minorities' was written by Farahnaz Ispahani, former member of Pakistan's Parliament. But she too did not mention the source of her figures.

The preceding figures on Pakistan's religious composition that are available are from Census 1941. But since it was conducted in an undivided India, referring to it is futile as it doesn't reflect the ground situation created just after the bloodied Partition in 1947.

After its formation, the first census in Pakistan was carried out in 1951. This census included both East and West Pakistan.

As per this census, the share of Muslims in Pakistan's overall population in 1951 was 85.80 per cent, while the share of non-Muslims was 14.20 per cent. (Pakistan here refers to East and West Pakistan taken together).

What is important to note in Census 1951 is that Pakistan's non-Muslim population wasn't evenly distributed.

In West Pakistan, the non-Muslim population was just 3.44 per cent, while in East Pakistan (today's Bangladesh) they had a significant share comprising 23.20 per cent of the population therein.

As per Census 1951, share of Muslims in Pakistan's overall population was 85.80%, while share of non-Muslims was 14.20%.

To understand the change in population of religious minorities in present-day Pakistan, we need to separately analyse the trends in West Pakistan and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

WHAT HAPPENED IN WEST PAKISTAN

In 1951, Muslims comprised 96.56 per cent of the total population in the territory that is today known as Pakistan. The table below details the religious composition of each of Pakistan's five provinces.

The next census in Pakistan was carried out in 1961 which said the non-Muslim population in West Pakistan had reduced to 2.83 per cent of West Pakistan's total population.

By 1972 when Pakistan carried out its third census, East Pakistan had been liberated and was now known as Bangladesh.

The 1972 census shows non-Muslims in Pakistan comprised 3.25 per cent of the total population. This was higher than their share in 1961. By the time the next census was carried out in 1981, Pakistan's non-Muslim population saw a miniscule rise--from 3.25 per cent in 1972 to 3.30 per cent in 1981.

Following Census 1981, Pakistan did not carry out a fresh census for more than 15 years and the next census was carried out in 1998.

As per this census, Pakistan's non-Muslim population was 3.70 per cent of the total population in 1998.

Recently, though Pakistan carried out a fresh census in 2017 but its religious data is yet to be released.

ALSO READ | Abduction, oppression and forced conversion is fate of Hindus in Pakistan

Thus in a nutshell, based on Pakistan's census data we find:

1) Population of non-Muslims was never 23 per cent of Pakistan's total population.

2) Even in undivided Pakistan, share of non-Muslim population never even touched the 15 per cent mark. (The highest was 14.2 per cent in 1951.)

3) When it comes to today's Pakistan (i.e. erstwhile West Pakistan), non-Muslims comprised 3.44 per cent of the region's population in 1951.

4) Census data show that share of non-Muslims in Pakistan has hovered around 3.5 per cent over the decades.

THE SITUATION IN EAST PAKISTAN (today's BANGLADESH)

Now, since the trend of non-Muslim population in the region that comprises Pakistan today is clear, we shall look at what happened in East Pakistan, which in 1971 became Bangladesh.

Pakistan's census data show that non-Muslims formed 23.20 per cent of East Pakistan's total population in 1951.

Over the years, this share has indeed reduced significantly, but still not as much as the BJP has claimed.

By 1961, share of non-Muslims in East Pakistan had reduced to 19.57 per cent, In 1974 it further reduced to 14.60 per cent; in 1981 to 13.40 per cent; in 1991 to 11.70 per cent and in 2001 to 10.40 per cent.

Bangladesh's latest census carried out in 2011 revealed that the share of non-Muslims has gone below 10 per cent of the country's overall population. In 2011, non-Muslims comprised 9.60 per cent of Bangladesh's population.

Thus, between 1951 and 2011, population of non-Muslims shrunk from a high of 23.20 per cent to a low 9.40 per cent.

ALSO READ | 1,792 persecutions on minorities in 11 months in Bangladesh, claims Hindu alliance

WHERE BJP'S CLAIM IS WRONG

Having separately examined the trend in population change in the regions that are today known as Pakistan and Bangladesh, let's examine the claims made by the BJP.

The BJP has claimed:

1) Population of non-Muslims in Pakistan has reduced from 23 per cent at the time of Independence to 3.7 per cent in 2011.

2) Population of non-Muslims in Bangladesh was 22 per cent at the time of Independence and has been reduced to 7.8 per cent in 2011.

3) This decline in population share of non-Muslims in these two Islamic countries was due to widespread religious persecution.

As discussed earlier, there is no official data on the religious composition of Pakistan at the time of Partition (then including today's Bangladesh). The closest official figures available are from Census 1951. What happened between 1947 and 1951 is subject to individual interpretation.

It is a fact that thousands of non-Muslims were persecuted in Pakistan at the time of Partition in 1947 (just as thousands of Muslims were persecuted in India). Besides this, thousands of Hindus and other religious minorities left Pakistan and entered India in 1947 and thousands of Muslims left India to become Pakistani citizens. This widespread migration and killings did alter the religious composition of the regions concerned in comparison to the situation before Partition. But the exact scale of these persecutions and migration remains unknown in absence of data, and hence the population share of non-Muslims in Pakistan in 1947 remains unknown.

Taking Pakistan's Census 1951 as benchmark for our analysis, we find that while raising the issue of religious persecution in Pakistan and Bangladesh, the BJP mixed-up data for the two regions.

Firstly, it said non-Muslims once comprised 23 per cent of Pakistan's population. The fact rather is that non-Muslims comprised 23 per cent of only East Pakistan's population, not the entire country. Taken together (East plus West Pakistan), share of non-Muslims was 14.20 per cent (the highest ever) in 1951.

Secondly, the BJP claimed that share of non-Muslims reduced from 23 per cent to 3.7 per cent in Pakistan. This too is incorrect because share of non-Muslims in Pakistan has hovered around 3.5 per cent from the first census onwards.

1951: 3.44 per cent

1961: 2.80 per cent

1972: 3.25 per cent

1981: 3.33 per cent

1998: 3.70 per cent

Thirdly, the BJP is correct in saying that the percentage share of non-Muslims has decreased significantly in Bangladesh. But it is wrong in saying that the decline was from 22 per cent to 7.8 per cent. As per official census data, the decline was from 23.20 per cent in 1951 to 9.40 per cent in 2011.

Fourthly, BJP has argued that religious persecution was the reason for decline of non-Muslim population in Bangladesh. There is no denying that religious minorities were brutally persecuted for decades in East Pakistan and later also in Bangladesh. It is a fact that hundreds of them were raped, murdered and forcibly converted into Islam.

But besides religious persecution, there were other strong factors that contributed in out-migration of non-Muslims from Bangladesh, which too resulted in decline of their share in population.

Persecution based on language in Bangladesh and greener economic opportunities in India have been strong push factors in Bangladesh for thousands of illegal immigrants who entered and settled in India.

These illegal immigrants are not just Hindus, but also comprise a sizable number of Bengali Muslims. Thus out-migration from Bangladesh has been a multi-factored phenomenon. Ascribing it entirely to persecution of religious minorities is erroneous.

This, however, does not reject the fact that religious minorities have been persecuted, raped and forcibly converted in Pakistan and Bangladesh. In many instances, such prosecution had explicit or tacit approval of the government in power.

This was particularly true in during decades of military rule and even after 1971 when East Pakistan was liberated and Bangladesh formed.

In summation, it appears that while championing the cause of religious minorities in Bangladesh and Pakistan, the BJP has used the 23 per cent figure of non-Muslims in Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan) in 1951 and compared it with the 3.7 per cent figure of non-Muslims in Pakistan in 1998.

The result of this mix-up is a narrative that says population share of non-Muslims has been reduced from 23 per cent to 3.7 per cent in Pakistan.

(NOTE: An earlier version of this article had a line which said "Census data show that share of non-Hindus in Pakistan has hovered around 3.5 per cent over the decades". This line was part of the four bullet points just above the sub-head 'The situation in East Pakistan'. Instead of 'non-Hindus', the term should have been 'non-Muslims'. The error is regretted and has been corrected.)

FROM OUR ARCHIVES | Hindu refugee influx from Bangladesh fuels tension in West Bengal

ALSO WATCH | Is Citizenship Amendment Bill against Constitution? Watch SC lawyer Harish Salve's take

PROFIT OVER PEOPLE
Bolivia’s New US-Backed Interim Gov’t Wastes No Time Privatizing Economy

From privatizing natural resources to partnering with other right-wing regimes, Bolivia’s new interim government has wasted no time in reversing years of hard-fought gains.

by Alan Macleod

PROFIT OVER PEOPLE

It has been barely one month since the administration of Jeanine Añez seized power in a military coup in Bolivia, but it has wasted no time in attempting to transform the economy and society. Its latest move is aimed at privatizing the country’s economy. A government spokesperson confirmed the fears of many, claiming that “I believe the government should reduce its own size” and a protagonistic role should be given to private enterprises. In case that was not clear enough, he emphasized, “Yes, I’m talking about privatization.” Bolivia’s economy is dependent on its nationalized oil and gas industries.

That was fast.

Just 1 month after their coup in Bolivia, Development Minister for the unelected ~transitional government~ spells out their agenda:“Yes, I’m talking about privatization. The govt role should be seriously reduced and the leading role given to private enterprise” https://t.co/s51qGRecsG— Wyatt Reed (@wyattreed13) December 12, 2019

After military generals appeared on television demanding his resignation, longtime president Evo Morales stepped down, citing the growing, targeted paramilitary violence against his MAS (Movement towards Socialism Party) colleagues. Morales, and his Vice-President Alvaro Garcia Linera, fled to Mexico for safety. The military chose Senator Jeanine Añez as his successor.

Añez is a strongly conservative Christian who has described Bolivia’s indigenous majority as “satanic” and vowed to bring the Bible back into politics. She has also provided the military carte blanche to use unlimited force in suppressing all resistance to her rule, even creating a squad of masked, heavily armed death squads aimed at uprooting leftist and foreign “terrorists.” Despite this, large areas of the country are in open rebellion and completely uncontrolled by the new government.

The unelected govt of Bolivia is threatening to disenfranchise the entire region of El Chapare (the country’s biggest MAS stronghold). Unless the overwhelmingly indigenous citizens allow the police who massacred them at Sacaba to take over, “they won’t be able to have elections.” pic.twitter.com/vcYyW61JMw— Wyatt Reed (@wyattreed13) December 13, 2019

For a supposed “transitional” government, a caretaker regime holding the reins until imminent elections are organized, the Añez administration has certainly made some bold moves. It has already pulled Bolivia out of multiple international and intercontinental political and economic organizations, such as ALBA (the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas) and UNASUR (the Union of South American Nations), both of which had a more left-of-center outlook.

Meanwhile, it has expelled large numbers of foreign nationals, including around 700 Cuban doctors that made up the backbone of the country’s new free healthcare system. It has also recognized U.S.-backed anti-president Juan Guaidó as the rightful ruler of Venezuela. With U.S. support, Guaidó attempted another Bolivia-style coup last month. Interior Minister Arturo Murillo has accused the Venezuelan government of being at the head of a vast narcotics conspiracy, ignoring his own boss’s ties to drug-runners (Añez’s nephew was caught with more than half a ton of cocaine in Brazil).

Murillo has formally requested the Israeli military come to train Bolivia’s armed forces and has eliminated entry visas for Americans and Israelis. Considering the IDF’s expertise in suppressing an indigenous population, Murillo’s intentions are worrying an increasing number of his countrymen. The government has also participated in a crackdown on dissenting journalism, closing down many TV networks including Bolivia TV, RT and TeleSUR. Even foreign journalists have been assaulted, detained and killed.

This latest move at privatizing the economy is part of an effort to “dismantle the apparatus of the dictatorial regime of Evo Morales,” as the Minister of Communication, Roxana Lizarraga, put it. On the orders of the International Monetary Fund, criticized by many as simply an extension of the U.S. government, the country’s oil and gas industries were privatized in 1996. International corporations like Enron, Shell and Repsol YPF were not even required to pay for their shares, making the move tantamount to the biggest giveaway in modern Bolivian history. Furthermore, royalties paid to the government were slashed to just 18 percent.

Water was also privatized. Bechtel, an American corporation, increased the prices to levels almost no Bolivian could afford to the point where water and sewage cost over half of an average Bolivian’s yearly wage. Bechtel also persuaded the government to privatize the sky, making it illegal to gather rainwater. The result was mass thirst that led to nationwide protests that became known as the Water War.

Within months of gaining office, Morales made good on his promise to nationalize key sectors of the economy. The move generated an extra $31.5 billion in government revenue over the next decade. He used the money to fund ambitious social programs. For example, over 11 percent of the revenues went to fund public universities, indigenous associations and a basic income grant to all low-income Bolivians over 60 years old.

Under Morales’ guidance, poverty halved and extreme poverty fell even further as citizens felt the benefits of the country’s natural resources. This, the Center for Economic Policy Research stresses, could not have been possible without nationalizing the hydrocarbons industry. Perhaps more important than all this, however, was the newfound dignity Bolivia’s indigenous majority felt at seeing the first indigenous president in the country’s history. The community is often treated with contempt bordering on revulsion by the light-skinned elite, but Morales has been part of a movement that inspired them to organize and take a protagonistic role in their country’s politics and society.

With the U.S. and the local elite back in charge of Bolivia and promising to re-privatize the economy, both their newly won social status and their improved economic circumstances are at imminent risk. A reversal of this policy will take coordinated resistance on the scale of the 2000 Water War.

Feature photo | Bolivia’s interim President Jeanine Anez gives a press conference at the presidential palace announcing the elimination of entry visas for citizens of the United States and Israel. La Paz, Bolivia, Dec. 11, 2019. Juan Karita | AP

Alan MacLeod is a MintPress Staff Writer as well as an academic and writer for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. His book, Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting was published in April.

Republish our stories! MintPress News is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.

AMERICAN HEALTHCARE MEME'S

Kenney's claim carbon tax damaged Alberta economy is refuted in court documents

NDP’s Climate Leadership Plan had marginal effect on GDP growth, analysis shows

Charles Rusnell, Jennie Russell - CBC News

Posted: December 16, 2019

Premier Jason Kenney's claims that the former NDP government's carbon tax crippled the Alberta economy are refuted by his government's own analysis, filed in court. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)

During the provincial election, and on many occasions since, the government of Premier Jason Kenney has claimed the NDP government's carbon tax damaged Alberta's economy.

That claim is false, according to economic modelling contained in the Kenney government's own legal documents.

"I think not surprisingly to those of us who have studied carbon taxes, [Kenney's claims] seem quite exaggerated," said University of British Columbia political scientist Kathryn Harrison, an expert in environmental, climate and energy policy.

Those legal documents are now before the Alberta Court of Appeal as part of the province's constitutional challenge of the Trudeau government's federal carbon tax.

Alberta Court of Appeal to live stream carbon tax reference case

The federal tax will be imposed on consumers in Alberta on Jan. 1 to replace the one contained in the Notley government's Climate Leadership Plan, repealed by Kenney this spring as one of his first acts as premier.

The federal government recently accepted Alberta's plan to tax the emissions of heavy emitters at a rate of $30 a tonne in 2020.

The court documents show the economic effect of the Notley government's Climate Leadership Plan, which included a $30-per-tonne carbon tax, was an average reduction in annual growth of Alberta's gross domestic product (GDP) of only 0.05 per cent.

GDP is the total dollar value of goods produced and services provided and is considered a basic measure of economic performance.

Healthy growth under carbon tax, expert says

A recently released government report, entitled Economic Assessment of Climate Policy in Alberta, looked at four different economic scenarios, including the looming federal carbon tax.

Those government scenarios examined how Alberta would fare:

Under the province's 2015 pre-carbon tax climate policies.
With the NDP's climate leadership plan and a carbon price of $30 a tonne.
With the climate leadership plan and a carbon price rising to $50 a tonne.
Under the federal carbon pricing system.

UBC political scientist Kathryn Harrison says the Alberta government's own analysis showed healthy economic growth and job creation under a carbon tax. (CBC)

"What they found is that there is healthy economic growth and healthy job creation under all of the scenarios from 2020 to 2030," Harrison said.

And she said the data showed even with a carbon tax rising to $50 a tonne, the difference in effect on the province's GDP would be marginal.

"The difference in the average growth of GDP at the maximum is a difference between 2.57 per cent [growth] per year and 2.5 per cent per year," said Harrison, who in addition to a doctorate in political science, holds a masters degree in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

But job creation would be affected by a carbon tax, Harrison said. The government report said the Notley carbon tax would reduce the number of jobs created by between 10,000 and 16,000 a year.

In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for Alberta Environment Minister Jason Nixon did not address the government analysis filed as part of its court challenge.

Instead, she referenced the government report that said Alberta's average annual GDP growth, under the Climate Leadership Plan with a carbon tax rising to $50 per tonne, would be reduced by between 0.6 to 0.9 percentage points, which is about $2 billion to $3.9 billion a year.

The statement also maintained the UCP government's position that the carbon tax imposed an unacceptable financial burden on individual households.

Government relied on Pembina Institute modelling

Simon Dyer of the Pembina Institute said the reduction in GDP growth under the Notley government carbon tax was insignificant.

"The carbon tax was misrepresented in the most recent provincial election in Alberta," Dyer said, adding that the tax "hasn't had a significant impact either on consumers or on industry."

The Pembina Institute has been publicly targeted by the UCP government for allegedly being anti-oil-and-gas development. And so the irony is not lost on Dyer that the Alberta government, in its legal challenge, chose to use environmental modelling by Pembina rather than its own modelling.

During cross-examination in October as part of Alberta's challenge to the federal carbon tax, Alberta assistant deputy minister for energy Robert Savage seemed to admit the Alberta government chose Pembina's modelling knowing it produced emissions-reduction data that was better for the government's case.

"So you had information that the Pembina Institute's modelling provided significantly smaller differences [in emissions reduction] because it had a more optimistic 'business as usual' approach?" B.C. government lawyer Gareth Morley asked Savage.

"My understanding is that there were some differences in the forecast," Savage replied, adding that he believed Navius Research, the firm hired by the Alberta government to model the effects of a carbon tax, was working with the Pembina Institute on that issue.

Under questioning, Savage also conceded the general consensus among economists is that a carbon tax is one of the most economically efficient ways to curb emissions.

Savage however, resisted a line of questioning that sought to establish that the Notley government's carbon tax had resulted in a significant reduction in emissions.

Attempted 'to misdirect Albertans,' NDP says

The environmental model Pembina used to forecast emissions reduction was developed by a San Francisco policy firm. The Alberta government used a draft version of that model to forecast that a $30-per-tonne carbon tax on building and transportation emissions would only reduce annual emissions by 1.4 megatonnes in 2020, and 2.7 megatonnes in 2030.

As part of the Paris climate agreement, Canada has committed to lowering its greenhouse-gas emissions by 30 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030. That means lowering emissions to 513 megatonnes from 732 megatonnes.

The Alberta government's own environmental modelling data, produced in court after the government filed its initial legal documents, forecast the carbon tax would reduce annual emissions by one megatonne in 2020, and by five megatonnes in both 2025 and 2030.

Dyer said the Pembina model is a "rigorous but simplified" model that doesn't consider how carbon-tax revenues could be used to drive further emissions reductions, for example through investment in public transit.

He said while carbon pricing isn't the only solution to reducing emissions, it is a critical and relatively low-cost tool that has proven effective.

"Carbon pricing works. It works for consumers in terms of helping them make different choices, especially if you provide rebates to ensure that they're not out of pocket," Dyer said, adding it is also necessary for industry.

"If we don't have strong enough carbon pricing in place, this industry is never going to be able to innovate fast enough to compete in this global market that is demanding low-carbon oil," he said.

Under the former NDP government's climate leadership plan, about 60 per cent of households were eligible for carbon-tax rebates.

University of Calgary researchers found four out of 10 households received a rebate that was greater than their carbon-tax costs. The federal government has said that under its system, that figure would be eight out of 10 households.

NDP environment critic Marlin Schmidt said the Kenney government misled the public about the carbon tax.

"I think what we saw during the election campaign was an attempt to misdirect Albertans," Schmidt said.

"We know that Albertans have been going through a really tough economy over the past few years, and Kenney used the carbon tax as a simple but wrong explanation as to what was going on with Alberta's economy."

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