BBC News reports that:
Governments, not private firms, must take responsibility for getting water to their people, a new report argues.
"Private companies only invest where they can make a profit, not where there is the greatest need," Peter Hardstaff of the World Development Movement says.
The organisation has launched the report, Pipe Dreams, on the eve of the United Nations' World Water Day.
The Sustainable Development Network, on the other hand, argued last week that free markets improved water services.
The WDM is unconvinced by the conclusions of the Sustainable Development Network, an array of 30 non-governmental organisations.
"Time and again the private sector has failed to deliver the promised investment," Mr Hardstaff, WDM's director of policy, said.
The article also notes, "The report describes sub-Saharan Africa as "the area that needs investment in water services the most".
But it says the private sector has failed to deliver the level of investment it promised in every single case where it has been responsible for extending access to water in the region.
"The private sector is not sufficiently reliable to manage these essential public services. Government must assume its responsibilities," David Boys of Public Services International said."
For the love of the Goddess, we're talking about WATER here! How can anyone imagine for even a moment that it should be privatized? Hello??? California and electricity, anyone? We KNOW what private companies do when they're set free to withhold an essential service with no demand elasticity; they withhold it and exercise their market power. They are perfectly willing, as we saw in California, to let people die.
Oh, and guess what business Enron was entering just before it went kabloom? That's right. Water.
2 comments:
I imagine even as we type, they're trying to figure out a way to make you pay for air.
Just goes to show that the marketplace is not always the most effecient way of delivering basic needs to the people.
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