Money Down the Drain

Greedy multinational corporations are after your water. If you don’t stop them, it could cost you a lot of money.

Protect Your Pocketbook with Just Six Tips:

• Privateers may be creeping around your town hall. Your town is sitting on a gold mine: your water supply. Corporate executives know this and may be trying to weasel control of YOUR water from your city or town.

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• Corporations may try to exploit your struggling city. Because of the economic crisis, cities and towns across the nation are going broke, and large corporations are offering large sums of cash in exchange for control of our valuable drinking water and wastewater systems.
• You might not know it‚ happening in your own community. Your mayor or city council may be cutting a deal behind your back. They could be trying to sell off control of your water without even telling you. We’ve seen it happen far too often.
• Your water bill could skyrocket. If you let them privatize your water utility, you could end up paying as much as 80 percent more for water service.
• You would have to pay for corporate expenses, incompetence and inefficiency. It‚ not surprising that you would pay more for private water. Despite their claims, corporations are not more efficient at providing water and sewer service, and they face several extra expenses. Private financing is more expensive, and corporate profits, dividends and income taxes can add 20 to 30 percent to operation and maintenance costs. The charges add up, and you would be stuck paying for them.
• Sewage could flood your home. From Richmond, Calif., to Gary, Ind., to Fairbanks, Alaska, many communities have suffered at the hands of water corporations. Sewage has spilled into households and businesses, waterways are polluted and water quality has suffered.

Privatization has failed. There are better solutions to our country‚ water woes. In the short term – here’s what you can do to protect your water system:

• Support a Clean Water Trust Fund. Sign on to this statement to ask Congress to provide the funds needed to protect our water sources and keep our water clean and safe.
• Support a National Infrastructure Bank with public money for public utilities. Let your representative and senators know that you support a National Infrastructure Bank, which President Barack Obama had promoted, but the water funding should go to only public entities and public projects. Water and sewer utilities should stay in public hands because that‚ a better deal for you, the consumer and taxpayer.