Reclaiming public water: achievements, struggles and visions from around the world

This book presents numerous case studies of successful approaches in the provision of urban water and sanitation services, which did not involve the private sector in their design or implementation. The book discusses the public provision of urban water and sanitation systems, without the involvement of the private sector, set within the wider context of the global water debate. The author argues that while privatisation is no solution, but neither is the status quo of often bureaucratised state-run water corporations which fail to supply clean water to those that need it. The author notes that almost without exception, global water corporations have failed to deliver the promised improvements and have, instead, raised water tariffs far beyond the reach of poor households.

The introductory chapter of the book discusses the historical background to the global crisis in water access and why the privatisation wave of the 1990s has failed. This is followed by over 20 chapters which present concrete examples and ideas on how urban water delivery can be improved through democratic public utility reforms.

Some key steps towards an enabling international environmentfor public water include:

• sustaining and expanding innovative and participatory public waterdelivery models around the world, for instance through international public-public partnerships
• canceling the crippling debt of developing countries in order to freepublic funds for expanding access to water
• the World Bank and other IFIs must end privatisation conditions forfinancial support to those requesting it
• wealthy northern governments must increase funding flows and endthe pro-privatisation bias
• enshrining the human right to water in international legal instruments, including a UN convention
• exempting water from the GATS negotiations (services liberalisation talks within the World Trade Organisation) and other trade agreements
• renegotiating bilateral and regional trade and investment agreements which enable private water corporations to claim undue compensationfrom public authorities via arbitration cases.

[adapted from author]