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PublicCitizen
Waves of regret 
 
Water for All - www.wateractivist.org
Waves of regret 
Public Citizen, founded in 1971, is a non-profit research, lobbying and litigation organization based inWashington. D.C. Public Citizen advocates for consumer protection and for government and corporateaccountability, and is supported by over 150,000 members throughout the United States.
Wave photo by Don Briggs from the documentary film 'Thirst' 
 A special report by Public Citizen’sWater for All program June 2005© 2005 Public Citizen. All rights reserved
 This document can be viewed or downloadedwww.wateractivist.org
Water for All CampaignWater for All Campaign, California215 Pennsylvania Ave. S.E1615 Broadway 9th floor Washington, D.C. 20003Oakland, CA. 94612tel: 202.546.4996tel: 510.663.0888fax: 202.547.7392fax: 510.663.8569cmep@citizen.orgcalifornia@citizen.orgwww.wateractivist.orgwww.citizen.org/california/water 
- What some cities have learned andother cities should know about water privatization fiascos in the United States
 
Part I: Thirsty? Let the market decide
 About 85 percent of all the water that comes out of atap in the United States is delivered by a publicly owned and publicly operated system.
1
In the 1990s, several corporations, led by Europeanprivate water giants but including long-time U.S. water firms with big appetites, and even Enron,looked at all that water being delivered publicly andsaw an attractive business opportunity. If the watercould be wrested from public control and owned, orat least controlled through long-term monopoly con-tracts, by private firms, the profits would be glorious.The U.S. seemed a particularly attractive “market” forthe private firms, especially the French companiesSuez and Veolia (then Vivendi) and the German con-glomerate RWE. Attempting to expand beyond theirmarkets in Europe, the firms were pushing to priva-tize water in developing nations in Asia, Africa andSouth America. But in many instances, thoseattempts didn’t pan out as planned, it being difficultto gouge governments and customers that don’t havea lot of money. The U.S., by contrast, presented thepromise of a steady, reliable revenue stream from cus-tomers willing and able to pay water bills.The U.S. political climate also seemed ripe for priva-tization. Thanks in part to politically correct conser- vatism and its attendant disdain and demonization of the public sector, elected officials from coast to coastattained office by preaching the practical and moralsuperiority of the private sector and promising votersto run government like a business.The water companies’ response: We
are
a business,and we’ll be happy to run part of your government.So with high hopes and big budgets, the internation-al corporations arrived in the U.S., chiefly by pur-chasing companies that had already established somepresence owning or delivering that 15 percent of the water coming from the tap that wasn’t under publiccontrol. Vivendi bought U.S. Filter, ultimately chang-ing the name of both companies to Veolia. Suezbought United Water. And RWE bought American Water Works, the nation’s largest private water utili-ty.
Unpopular, failing and wrong 
The invasion, however, hit a snag. The corporateaspirations to replace public control of water in theU.S. with private control of water for profit, eitherthrough ownership or long-term operation and man-agement contracts, contained a fundamental, andthus far largely insurmountable, problem; a problemthat the companies and their apologists in the politi-cal class failed to fully comprehend and anticipate: Itturns out people don’t want their water privatized.The public embraces the notion of publicly owned water and wastewater services. For instance, results of a 2005 poll conducted by the Luntz ResearchCompanies for the Association of MetropolitanSewerage Agencies found overwhelming support—86percent—for legislation to create a trust fund for safeand clean water infrastructure.
2
Not surprisingly, then, when people hear that theirmayor or city council or other public officials are toy-ing with the idea of privatizing water, it strikes people
Water for All - www.wateractivist.orgWaves of regretPage 1
Waves of regret 
What some cities have learned and other cities should know about water privatization fiascos in the United States 
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