Industry experts call for water privatization and higher global water price
Private water suppliers poised to grow as demand set to surge 
By Juliette Jowit in Paris
www.guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 28 April 2010 14.47 BST Private companies are poised for a surge in demand to take over water supplies, despite widespread opposition to privatisation of what is seen as a life-giving public service. Global Water Intelligence analysts expect the water supply market to grow about 20% in the next five years, and demand is especially strong in North Africa, the Middle East and China, GWI’s publisher Christopher Gasson told the Guardian. … Despite huge controversy over privatisation of water suppliers in the last couple of decades – most famously violent protests in Bolivia over huge big bill increases – a World Bank report last year showed the population served by private companies has continued to expand, from almost zero in 1991 to more than 160m in 2007. … Passionate opposition remains however, and not everything is going the private operators’ way: officials in Gary, Indiana, in the US, want to terminate their private contract early, claiming they can do the job for half the price; and the concession to supply 2 million residents in central Paris was recently awarded to a public authority, after 25 years of private operation. Maude Barlow, chair of Food & Water Watch campaign group, told delegates that although private companies could help build networks and big infrastructure, they should not be able to make a profit from supplying water. “I don’t think anybody should be making money from delivering water because it can be done in the public sector on a not-for-profit basis,” said Barlow. “No corporation can survive on that basis … You make decisions about life and death because you have to make a profit, and that’s the issue here.” Oxfam said it was concerned about big private operators “cherry picking” the most profitable customers, and suing governments if they tried to terminate contracts for poor performance or exorbitant prices – as Bechtel tried to do in Bolivia. “Market-led solutions have often undermined the provision of essential services and have had a negative impact on the poorest and most vulnerable communities,” said a spokesman. “Water privatisation is the most notorious example.”
Private water suppliers poised to grow as demand set to surge
Corporations love to "take over" everything that they can. To them, everything has a price, even water. They'd sell the air if they could.
Every nuance and element of life is at risk from these rapacious bastards. In some states, collecting rainwater is illegal, the government thinks that THEY own what falls from the sky.
Needless to say, I do not agree with this and would never obey such an absurd edict. ~Survival Acres~