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03/22/2006:

"At World Forum, Support Erodes for Private Management of Water"

MEXICO CITY, March 19 — For more than a decade, the idea that private companies would be able to bring water to the world's poor has been a mantra of development policies promoted by international lending agencies and many governments.

It has not happened. In the past decade, according to a private water suppliers trade group, private companies have managed to extend water service to just 10 million people, less than 1 percent of those who need it. Some 1.1 billion people still lack access to clean water, the United Nations says.

The reality behind those numbers is sinking in. At the fourth World Water Forum, a six-day conference here of industry, governments and nongovernmental organizations, there is little talk of privatization.

Instead, many people here want to return to relying on the local public utilities that still supply 90 percent of the water to those households that have it.
nytimes.com


Big water companies quit poor countries
Millions of people could have to wait years for clean water as some of the world's largest companies pull out of developing countries because of growing doubts about privatisation projects, a major UN report reveals today.

Political and consumer unease about multimillion-pound schemes that were intended to end the cycle of drought and death that has afflicted many countries is forcing major multinationals to think again. "Due to the political and high-risk operations, many multinational water companies are decreasing their activities in developing countries," says the UN's second world water development report, published today in Mexico City.

Multinationals sent in to profit off what other multinationals have despoiled. Sweet deal.