The corporations vying to control our water are among the largest companies in the world. French-owned Suez (better known in the United States as United Water) and Veolia have operations in 130 and 100 countries respectively. German energy multinational RWE burst onto the global water scene when it bought the British Thames Water in 2000 and American Water, the largest water corporation in the United States, in 2003. By 2008, only a few years later, RWE had all but conceded defeat by pulling out of the United States and Britain.

Other large water operations include Rand Water (South Africa), NUON (The Netherlands), Bechtel (U.S.), Biwater (U.K.), Bouygues/SAUR (France), Aqua America (U.S.), California Water Company (U.S.) and Southwest Water (U.S.).

But the water corporations have fallen on hard times – it turns out that people all around the world don’t want their water to be controlled by corporations that put profits ahead of consumers, affordability and access. Due to failure to meet profit targets as well as opposition to rate increases and to water privatization at the local level,   RWE is getting out of the water business entirely.  It has sold Thames Water and shares of American Water.

And thanks to activism all across the world people have challenged the failures of private water and exposed the flawed model that puts profits ahead of the interest of people. Instead, communities are turning to their elected officials, their communities and their neighbors to build stronger locally controlled utilities.

Water corporations still threaten control of our water. Join us in working for strong local management of water and watch out for corporate control in your community.