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TitlePrivatizing U.S. water
Publication TypeMiscellaneous
Year of Publication2007
AuthorsVarghese, S
Pagination7 p.
Date Published2007-07-01
PublisherInstitute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Place PublishedMinneapolis, MN, USA
Keywordsevaluation, investment, policies, privatization, sdiman, triple s models, usa, water authorities, water supply
Abstract

This paper traces the history of public water provision in the US, examines the problematic experiences of privatization in the last decade, and looks at future trends. The paper finds that the past several decades have seen a steady decrease in funding for water-related infrastructure development and maintenance. And although a strategy adopted in the 1990s to privatize public water systems has been forced to scale back in recent years, there are still ongoing efforts to further privatize water systems in the US and around the world. The paper is divided into three sections. The first section provides a survey map of privatized water utilities in the U.S. The survey identifies the main national and international corporations and investor-owned utilities involved in the U.S. water sector. It stresses the difficulty of monitoring such actors, since they are not required to be as transparent as publicly owned utilities. The second section looks at how the investment gap in water-related services emerged, and how this changed the context for private sector investment. The third section examines the specific form that private sector investment has taken. In particular, we stress how multinationals dominated the process of privatization until very recently, and how global trends influenced the multinationals’ roles in the U.S.

Notes44 ref.
Custom 1825, 202.2

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