Zurich. Cantonal Council does not want to leave drinking water supply private.
After the defeat at the ballot box, the cantonal council made a second attempt on Monday for a water law. What is new in the “Water Act 2.0” is above all an express ban on privatizing the water supply. This was decided by the Council at first reading.
The supply of drinking water should not be left to private individuals – everyone was able to agree on this principle on Monday, including the commoners. The Council therefore approved a new version of the law without this cracking nut in the first reading.
The Water Act now states that “a spin-off to legal entities is only permitted if one or more municipalities have all the capital or all the voting rights”. There are exceptions for cooperatives, which are already responsible for the drinking water supply in communities.
The “killer clause” is missing
The possible privatization of the water supply was decisive in 2019 for the people to send the first water law down the drain. It was a bitter defeat for the commoners.
At that time the parliament was bourgeois and the law accordingly owner-friendly and little. In the meantime, left-green predominates, so the “killer paragraph” is missing on the second attempt.
In addition to the possible water privatization, it was also an “extra sausage” for lake starters, which annoyed many voters in 2019. Lake residents would have enjoyed special property protection with the first law, which would have made a lakeside path even more difficult. This “extra sausage” has also been deleted.
Farmers lose farmland
Only the SVP was against the revised version of the water law in the first reading. She criticized the fact that ecology is now being placed before the protection of property.
For example, farmers could lose valuable farmland due to revitalization and flood protection measures. This is wrong and dangerous for the food supply. People couldn’t graze, said Martin Prettyr (SVP, Wiesendangen), who is a farmer himself.
The second reading with the final vote is expected to take place in four weeks. It is unlikely that the referendum will be attempted a second time and that the proposal will come before the people.
Water protection, flood protection and drinking water supply are regulated in the Water Act.
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