Is drinking water a human right or merely a commodity? Who gets to decide?
Top 10 Reasons to Oppose Water Privatization(.pdf)
The World Bank has predicted that by the year 2025, two-thirds of the world's population will run short of fresh drinking water. Given such a grim future, it comes as little surprise that Fortune magazine recently defined water as "the oil of the 21st century."
The natural response to such a scenario would be to concentrate energy and resources on protecting existing supplies, enhancing conservation efforts, helping vulnerable populations, improving pollution control initiatives and raising public awareness about
an impending crisis that could threaten the lives of hundreds of millions -- perhaps
billions -- of people. Moreover, such a crisis could unleash an environmental cataclysm from which the planet could never recover.
Unfortunately, this is not the thinking of corporate executives and, increasingly,
government officials throughout the world. Instead, more and more of them are proposing to transfer the control of this precious resource from the public sector to the private sector. Today, one cannot avoid hearing the word "privatization" when the global water crisis is discussed.
Given the track record of corporations that have begun to privatize water systems, and given how privatization has wreaked economic, social and environmental havoc on other utility industries, there is no reason to believe that corporations will demonstrate more responsible stewardship practices if they gain control of drinking water systems. It is no underestimation to say that the very survival of billions of people could rest on decisions being made today -- behind closed doors, in most cases -- in corporate boardrooms and government offices throughout the world.
With each drop of water that falls into the hands of private interests, any sustainable solution to the global water crisis moves further and further from the public's grasp. Here are 10 reasons -- among many -- why the privatization of drinking water supplies could spell doom for many of the world's 6 billion-plus people.
Each item in this list are dealt with more fully in an acrobat document you can open or download here:
1) Privatization Leads to Rate Increases
2) Privatization Undermines Water Quality
3) Companies are Accountable to Shareholders, not Consumers
4) Privatization Fosters Corruption
5) Privatization Reduces Local Control and Public Rights
6) Private Financing Costs More Than Government Financing
7) Privatization Leads to Job Losses
8) Privatization is Difficult to Reverse
9) Privatization Can Leave the Poor With No Access to Clean Water
10) Privatization Would Open the Door to Bulk Water Exports
Hulu is offering a documentary on the topic called Flow: For the Love of Water
Leave a comment