New Water Bill in Senate Offers Wrong Solution

New Water Bill in Senate Correctly Identifies Problem, But Offers Wrong Solution
Public Citizen

A bill introduced Wednesday in the U.S. Senate, which seeks to address the global water crisis affecting billions of people in the developing world, has the right intent, but the wrong solution. Disguised in “public-private partnership” lingo, the bill, S. 492, co-sponsored by Sens. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), promotes privatization of water services as the means to alleviate the burgeoning problems of providing safe, clean and affordable water to the estimated 1.1 billion people who lack access to water and the 2.4 billion people without sanitation services.

Governments should play a leadership role in providing water to citizens. That responsibility cannot be delegated to private companies that have identified water as the oil of the 21st century. Around the world, the evidence is compelling that private water companies create problems rather than solve them. Rather than providing safe and affordable drinking water for the poor, multinational water companies have increased consumer water rates, failed to extend services to poor neighborhoods, caused public health crises, and have polluted and contributed to creating other environmental problems.