How multinationals are taking control of a public resource
Canadian Broadcasting produced this comprehensive 5-part series in 2003 on water privatization. Check it out.
Water, like air, is a necessity of human life. It is also, according to Fortune magazine, "One of the world’s great business opportunities. It promises to be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th."
In the past ten years, three giant global corporations have quietly assumed control over the water supplied to almost 300 million people in every continent of the world. A 12-month investigation by journalists in Canada, the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America shows that the results range from questionable to disastrous. And it shows how well-meaning municipal governments in the U.S. and Canada can become vulnerable to the persuasive techniques of these high-powered corporate giants.
Water is a right, not a commodity to be bought and sold to whoever pays the most. Privatization of water is being forced by multinationals, aided and abetted by the World Bank. It generally ends up depriving the needy of that most basic right, the right to drink clean, affordable water.