Month: September 2022

WORLD BANK AGENDA. "Less is known about the impacts of the World Bank's latest obsession -- the privatization of water services. In country after country in recent years, the World Bank has been quietly imposing a for-profit system of water delivery, leaving millions of people without access to water." http://lnkd.in/dqG2Hru View in LinkedIn

WORLD BANK LOANS often explicitly require water privatization, and through its International Finance Corporation, funds these private water companies. A major force worldwide in water privatization, it has lent ~$20 billion in the last decade to further these goals. http://lnkd.in/dqG2Hru View in LinkedIn

ONE ESTIMATE OF WATER PRIVATIZATION 2007-2011. "909 million in 62 countries or 13% of the world population were served by the private sector ... 309 million people in China, 61 million in the United States, 60 million in Brazil, 46 million in France, 23 million in Spain, 15 million in India and 14 million in Russia. In England and Wales the entire population of 55 million is served by private companies." http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_privatization View in LinkedIn

TEN MAJOR WATER SERVICES COMPANIES. "Between them, the three biggest -- Suez and Vivendi [recently renamed Veolia Environment] of France and RWE-AG of Germany -- deliver water and wastewater services to almost 300 million customers in over 100 countries, and are in a race ... to expand to every corner of the globe." http://lnkd.in/dqG2Hru View in LinkedIn

EXPONENTIAL GROWTH OF WATER PRIVATIZATION. "Their growth is exponential; a decade ago, they serviced around 51 million people in just 12 countries. And, although less than 10 percent of the world's water systems are currently under private control ... the top three alone will control over 70 percent of the water systems in Europe and North America in a decade." http://lnkd.in/dqG2Hru View in LinkedIn

THE MAJORITY OF WATER WILL BE PRIVATIZED, and by that time, it will be substantially too late, with enormous power and wealth concentrated into under a dozen companies worldwide. Given the track record of the leading contenders, this is a very gloomy prospect. View in LinkedIn

GLEAMING CHROME TAPS in our tidy clean houses create a stunning mirage of water quality, and obscure the realities of the vast water distribution systems that deliver our public water, and the under-resourced water treatment plants charged with delivering clean water. View in LinkedIn

2009, PARIS RECLAIMS WATER SUPPLY after a century of private management. The city reclamation was in response to decades of poor performance and neglect of the public water supply. Paris is not alone as a major metropolis struggling with a crumbling water infrastructure and under-investment. http://lnkd.in/dUZtZhP View in LinkedIn

LONDON WATER INFRASTRUCTURE. "Every day, Thames Water ... treats and supplies 2.6 gigalitres (2.6×10(9) litres) of potable tap water from 102 water treatment works via 288 clean water pumping stations through 31,100 km (19,300 mi) of ... mains to 9 million customers ... across London ... 30 raw water reservoirs and 235 underground service reservoirs." http://lnkd.in/dPHvd8U View in LinkedIn

LONDON WATER PROBLEMS. "In May 2006 the leakage was nearly 900 megalitres per day (Ml/day) and in June that year Thames Water missed its target for leakage reduction for the third year in a row. The Consumer Council for Water, a customers' group, accused Thames Water for continuing to miss their targets for the past five years." http://lnkd.in/dPHvd8U View in LinkedIn