Private vs. Public
With two-thirds of the world’s population expected to run short of fresh drinking water by 2025, water has come to be known as “the oil of the 21st century.” Around the world, multinational corporations are parlaying the misery of our water-starved regions into profits for their stockholders and executives.
| FEATURED REPORTS |
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Money Down the Drain: How Private Control of Water Wastes Public Resources |
Dried Up, Sold Out: How the World Bank’s Push for Private Water Harms the Poor |
Faulty Pipes: Why Public Funding – Not Privatization – Is the Answer for U.S. Water Systems |
With two-thirds of the world’s population expected to run short of fresh drinking water by 2025, water is being referred to as “the oil of the 21st century.”
Around the world, multinational corporations are parlaying the misery of our water-starved regions into profits for their stockholders and executives.
Many public utilities are struggling financially to meet federal clean water standards and to maintain and modernize water systems.
So when cash-strapped communities are unable to make necessary water upgrades, private companies persuade them to sell off their public water systems. Communities that have experimented with privatization have found that it does not solve their water woes. In fact, many private companies are providing worse service at a higher cost than most public utilities.
HOW FOOD & WATER WATCH IS HELPING
Food & Water Watch serves as a clearinghouse for information and an ally in organizing to ensure that water –– a public resource –– stays in public hands.
- We provide support for the residents, elected officials, water utility staff, and community leaders who are fighting to protect their water from corporate control.
- In addition to serving as a clearinghouse for communities facing privatization, we alert public officials and concerned citizens about the economic, social and environmental benefits of local ownership, and the risks of privatization
PROGRESS
People have won real victories in protecting their water resources
–– from the small coastal town of Montara, California, to the highlands
of Cochabamba, Bolivia, to the great city of New Orleans.
Something happening in your community? Have questions? Let us know –– email us at water(at)fwwatch.org.
Learn More
Fact Sheets
- Protecting America’s Waters: Clean and Safe Water Needs a Trust Fund
- Questions & Answers: A Cost Comparison of Public and Private Water Utility Operation
- The Top Five Reasons to Keep New Mexico’s Water in Public Hands
- The Top Five Reasons to Keep Tennessee’s Water in Public Hands
- The Top Five Reasons to Keep California’s Water in Public Hands
Reports
- Mortgaging Milwaukee’s Future — The City of Milwaukee faces a serious fiscal predi ...
- Water Privatization Threatens Workers, Consumers and Local Economies — Our country’s good public operators have kept wa ...
- American Water — RWE’s short, uneasy U.S. experiment is a caution ...
- Aqua America — Aqua America is the second largest publicly traded ...
- Costly Returns — Costly Returns: How Corporations Could Profit from ...

Faulty Pipes