A worldwide crisis over water is brewing. According to the United Nations, 31 countries are now facing water scarcity and 1 billion people lack access clean drinking water. Water consumption is doubling every 20 years and yet at the same time, water sources are rapidly being polluted, depleted, diverted and exploited by corporate interests ranging from industrial agriculture and manufacturing to electricity production and mining. The World Bank predicts that by 2025, two-thirds of the world's population will suffer from lack of clean and safe drinking water.

Today, people around the world are losing ownership and control of the water which remains.

Instead of protecting their citizens’ water resources from self-interested profiteers, governments are retreating from their responsibilities and bending to the will of giant transnational corporations that are poised to profit from the shortage of water. Fortune magazine has predicted that "water is the oil of the 21 century," and now corporations are rushing to invest in the new get-rich economy of water. Giant water, energy, food, and shipping companies have plans to buy water rights, privatize publicly-owned water systems, promote bottled water, and sell "bulk" water by transporting it from water rich areas to thirsty markets. At the same time, to ensure maximum profits, these companies are lobbying to weaken water quality standards, and pushing for trade agreements that hand over the U.S. water resources to foreign corporations.

Why oppose privatization of water?
Water privatization schemes throughout the world have a track record of skyrocketing prices, water quality problems, deteriorating service and a loss of local control.

Privatization advocates argue – usually without any supporting evidence – that switching from publicly owned and operated utilities to private sector firms will lead to greater economic efficiency, stabilized rates, reduced public debt and improved budgetary management.

In reality, privatization more often than not fulfills none of these promises, and instead creates a number of new problems. Vulnerable to corruption and operating according to a profit-driven corporate agenda fundamentally incompatible with delivering an essential service, private water companies are failing to provide citizens with safe, affordable water. Private corporations seek to increase profit margins by cutting costs; hence privatization is almost always accompanied by lay-offs.

Water is a Human Right
Water is essential to sustain life. It is enshrined in the right to life and dignity, as set forth in the International Bill of Human Rights. In 2002, the United Nations adopted water as a human right. This adoption commits the 145 countries that have ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to gradually ensure fair and non-discriminatory access to safe drinking water.

Daily, the right to water is violated – according to the World Health Organization an estimated 1.7 billion people still lack access to clean water and 2.3 billion people suffer from water-borne diseases each year. Water-borne diseases occur due to the inability to provide clean water, but increasingly due to pricing of water. Pre-paid water meters are installed in poor areas in order to ensure profitable supply and services are cut-off if citizens fall behind on their payments. Privatization of water has only exacerbated the problem. People should control water, not corporations.

Water is a common resource and we all have an equal right to this precious resource and a responsibility to protect it.

Water Privatization Fiascos: A New Social Experiment?
The role of multinational corporations in providing water and sanitation services is relatively new. In fact, one could say water "privatization" is a global social experiment. Historically, water has been viewed as a public good, not a market commodity. Over the last 200 years, most water utilities have been publicly owned and managed. And, the vast majority of people around the world receive water and sanitation services from publicly owned and operated facilities. Most countries have only recently begun to consider privatization of their water utilities. Only 5% of the world’s water services are run by private companies. Water and sanitation services have been publicly run because private companies were not interested in owning or managing water utilities. There was little or no profit to be made. But, with the specter of growing freshwater scarcity and the prediction that water will be the oil of the 21st century, major global corporations have been moving into the "water market."

Promises made
The multinational water corporations, their government allies, the IMF, the World Bank and the regional development banks have claimed that water privatization (or public/private partnerships) is the answer. They claim that bringing the private sector into water and sanitation service provision will ensure access to the more than a billion people worldwide who lack clean and affordable water, and the 2.4 billion who lack sanitation services. The water corporations and their allies argue that the private sector is more efficient, cost-effective and competitive. And, the private sector can bring needed financing.

Alternatives to Water Privatization
Water is a basic human right and governments have a responsibility to ensure universal access to water and sanitation services. Water and sanitation services that are publicly funded, managed and operated are the most common approach around the world. This approach has evolved in the course of human history due to the adverse public health outcomes (cholera and other water-borne diseases) when major portions of the population are excluded from access to adequate water and sanitation facilities. The public health literature makes it clear that expanding access to clean water has such great human and economic benefits that it is worth considering having governments provide it at a loss, to be subsidized by other sectors that benefit.

Yet many governments have failed in their obligation to provide universal access to water and sanitation services. This has enabled the World Bank and other international institutions to claim that the public sector is not efficient and cost-effective and the private sector is the answer. Most people are not convinced that the answer can be found in ceding their public water systems to private profit-making corporations. Instead, around the world, local communities have developed their own creative water management solutions. This section will explore a range of dynamic alternative models of publicly-owned or collectively-owned water services that focus on democratic participation, local accountability and community activism.

Public Partnerships
Private companies have offered themselves as the solution, but have not posted a good record. Many cities have concluded that their vital water and wastewater services could be operated more efficiently in the public sphere. A number of communities have reorganized operation and management under local, public control. It has saved money, rewarded employees, maintained or improved water quality and kept money in the community.

Public-public partnerships: A backgrounder on successful water/wastewater reengineering programs
Public-public partnerships: The sparkling alternative to water privatization

The New Mexico Acequia Association (NMAA)
NMAA is a statewide organization of acequias and regional associations of acequias. Their mission is to ensure the survival of agricultural and rural traditional communities in New Mexico by protectiong the historic water rights of the acequias through community education and involvement in policy. They work to protect the long-term viability of acequias as part of a way of life rooted in land-based culture, as institutions of government dedicated to water management at the local level, and as vital elements of the land-based economy of New Mexico's traditional communities.

Public-Community Partnership in Savelugu, Ghana
A community-based water management model that employs collaboration between public utilities and local communities has been shown to be an effective alternative to privatization.

The Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, India
Real and lasting solutions, decentralized and ecological alternatives exist for Delhi as well as the rest of the country. While these alternatives are more reliable and have lower costs, corporation and politicians do not like them since they strengthen water democracy instead of increasing corporate profits and political corruption. The press release below proposes some alternative mdels of water democracy.

“People’s Control” in Cochabamba, Bolivia
After the Water War, during which residents of Cochabamba expelled a Bechtel-led water privatization from their city, civil society was determined to create a water delivery model that was neither private nor governed by the state, which had invited the privateers to Bolivia in the first place.

Alternatives to Privatization: The Power of Participation
This article explores participatory and cooperative models of water service delivery in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Keeping It Public in Bogotá
In Bogotá, the Colombian capital with a population of 6.5 million, a series of progressive mayors led reforms in the late 1990s that turned the focus of public service to the city’s poorest neighborhoods, and subsidized potable water and sewerage service. As a result, despite demands of privatization from the World Bank, the Water and Sewerage Company of Bogotá (EAAB) remained in public hands while raising the proportion of households with potable water from 78% in 1993 to 95% in 2001.

Reclaiming Public Water! Participatory Alternatives to Privatisation
Important lessons can be learned from people-centred, participatory public models that are in place or under development in cities like Dhaka (Bangladesh), Cochabamba (Bolivia), Savelugu (Ghana) and Recife (Brazil), to mention a few. In these cities, public water supply has been improved through increased popular control and other democratic reforms. In all their diversity, these models provide inspiring and viable alternatives both to failing state-run utilities and profit-driven private water management.

Who are the major water companies?
The two largest water corporations in the world are part of French transnational Vivendi and German energy conglomerate RWE. Ranked 51st and 53rd among Fortune's Global 500 List, these two water giants capture nearly 40 percent of the existing water market share. The French company, Suez, follows the two front runners ranked 99th on the list. These multinationals are now gaining a foothold in the United States, where they operate through a number of subsidiaries.

Suez operates in 130 countries and Vivendi in over 100; their combined annual revenues are over $70 billion (including $19 billion in water and wastewater services). RWE revenues are currently over $50 billion (energy included), having acquired British water giant Thames Water. Upon completion of the purchase of American Water Works, RWE will gain control of the largest U.S. private water utility. This expands its customer base from 43 million to 56 million people. Other major water corporations include Bechtel, Biwater plc, Bouygues/Saur, U.S. Water, Severn Trent, Anglian Water, and the Kelda Group.
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Source: www.publiccitizen.org