Case Studies of Failed Water Privatizations
Water privatization has left a trail of failures in cities across the United States. From Alabama to California, high rates and bad service plague communities who transfer control of their water service to the hands of corporations. The water barons prioritize stockholder returns over public well being and leave municipalities to clean up the mess. Below are 20 examples of what happens with water privatization. While privateers have lauded these so-called successful operators, every case is marred by skyrocketing rates, sewage flooded basements, federal investigations, broken pipes, bad water quality, cost overruns, corruption or scandal.
Download this fact sheetFact 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 ...