Private Companies Poised to Take Over Public Water Supply

In the U.S. about 85 percent of people have water systems that are publicly run, but that may be about to change. The Guardian reports that private companies, working both in the U.S. and internationally, are looking to scoop up many more public water systems in coming decades. As a global water crisis worsens, some are seeing this as a chance to cash in. What does it mean when a basic human right like water is in the hands of for-profit companies?

According to the article, the water market is likely to grow about 20 percent in the next five years, particularly in places like North Africa, China and the Middle East. The U.S. is also seen as a hot spot. The article says that there are hundreds of public utilities that are believed to be chatting with private companies regarding water services.

Many public utilities in the U.S. are struggling to replace aging pipes and infrastructure as federal funding has fallen drastically in the last few decades. Privatization, sometimes under the guise of "public-private-partnerships," is seen as a quick way to make a few bucks upfront by selling (or leasing) a water system, but has often worked against towns in the long-run as corporations ultimately serve shareholders and not customers.

I was recently talking with people from the tiny town of Felton, CA, who spent five years fighting to win public control over their water system after it was sold and ended up in the hands of multinational RWE, the third largest water service provider in the world. Felton residents saw their rates increase 74 percent in just a few years as service got worse. They were so fed up that the town voted to increase their household taxes by nearly $600 a year for 30 years just to raise enough money to buy back their water utility.

Felton is not alone — across the U.S., from Kentucky to California, Florida to Wisconsin, towns have fought back against attempts to privatize, and the same is true across the world. The most notable uprising was in Cochabamba, Bolivia 10 years ago. And yet, the Guardian reports that private companies are still getting more and more customers — they went from none in 1991 to 160 million by 2007, a staggering increase.

But despite this, as a recent meeting in Bolivia has illustrated, the fight to keep water as a human right, in the hands of the public is also a growing movement and big business better beware.

Photo credit: Ivan Cabrera