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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

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

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

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 WATER PRIVATIZATION. "The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund played an important role in this process through the conditionality of their lending." There is a sea of misinformation about the extent of water privatization, but one thing is sure, it is happening at a real pace. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_privatization View in LinkedIn

WATER CRISIS. "If you Google “water crisis,” you get about 180 million hits. This global “water crisis” is in some ways analogous to what we once viewed as an oil crisis, and now see as a much broader energy crisis." http://lnkd.in/dkBHPAW View in LinkedIn

AUSIE WATER GRAB. "In Australia, now in the sixth year of a drought, brokers in urban areas are buying up water rights from farmers. Rural residents around the U.S. are trying to sell their land (and water) to multi-national water bottlers like Nestlé." http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2008-06-11/there-will-be-water View in LinkedIn

US LAWS GOVERNING WATER OWNERSHIP. Most laws are based in 19th and 20th century common law decisions and badly need updating. Today, speculators are having a field day purchasing these rights. The situation worldwide is worse. http://lnkd.in/dRt4x5p View in LinkedIn

HALIBURTON AND BECHTEL are betting on water privatization in Iraq by winning large contracts to rebuild the water system, followed by the privatization of water. Bechtel is already one of the top ten water privatization companies worldwide, with a long record of abusive actions. http://lnkd.in/dtF9-Wn View in LinkedIn

DUBIOUS PROVENANCE. "In June 2003, Poland Spring was sued for false advertising in a class action lawsuit charging that their water that supposedly comes from springs, is in fact heavily treated common ground water ... stands over a former trash and refuse dump, and below an illegal disposal site where human sewage was sprayed as fertilizer for many years." http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%25C3%25A9_Waters_North_America View in LinkedIn