Corporate Take Over
By Scott Edwards

Global trade financiers
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank are at the center of forcing water privatization in third world countries. The World Bank typically requires countries to privatize water services as a condition of receiving development loans and it has launched a carefully orchestrated public relations effort to promote the idea that water is a commodity, not a human right.
The price per barrel began to drop from its all-time high in early spring as production flourished and supplies became more readily available. Members of producing nations and their corporate partners began to worry – profits were decreasing as the basic free market principle of supply and demand kicked in. And with the peak use summer season fast approaching for the United States and much of Europe, where large industrial nations were so completely dependant on foreign sources, it was the worst possible timing for any price reduction. Drastic measures would have to be taken if the Cartel member nations were to maintain their profit margins.

The Cartel ministers huddled together in the luxury hotel’s richly decorated and dimly lit conference room, coming together from a handful of nations at an emergency session to settle this pressing issue. Behind closed doors, decisions were made swiftly. Production would have to be cut immediately to increase demand and maintain profits. The free market would once again need to be artificially manipulated to influence the price of the world’s most precious liquid resource; price fixing and collusion were the measure of the day. And the beauty of it all was that no one could do anything about it. After all, unlike oil, there was no chance of the development of alternate renewable sources for this commodity - fresh drinking water is irreplaceable.

Our planet is quickly approaching a global crisis. At our current rate of usage, with 12 percent of the world’s population using 85 percent of the planet’s water resources, the World Bank predicts that two-thirds of the planet’s population will run short of fresh drinking water by 2025. Communities and whole water-poor nations will soon be left scrambling to find fresh water resources for drinking, washing, agriculture and industrial uses. Unfortunately, rather than taking the action necessary to protect precious water resources and maintain water delivery infrastructures, governments around the world are shirking their responsibilities and entering into corporate partnerships – selling our water rights to a handful of giant transnational corporations that are poised to profit handsomely from the impending shortage of fresh drinking water. With dwindling supplies, increasing demands and billions of dollars in the balance, our most vital natural resource is quietly being privatized by corporate entities with the support of global trade financiers and through the corporate welfare of government subsidies and contracts.

As you read this, multinational water, energy, food, and shipping conglomerates are actively acquiring water rights, privatizing publicly owned water systems, promoting bottled water, and selling bulk water by transporting it from water rich areas to markets desperate for more water. At the same time, to ensure maximum profits, these companies are lobbying to weaken water quality standards, and pushing for international trade agreements that hand over the global water resources to private corporations. These water giants believe that fresh water is simply another commodity – no different from oil or widgets – and that markets need to be established, corporate control exercised and water policy created on the basis of sheer market profits. In arguing that people should have to pay for access to clean water, Vivendi’s managing director has stated, free water "is not so good an idea."

Waterkeeper Alliance believes that global access to free, clean water is a very good idea, indeed. Access to fresh water is a fundamental human right. Water is not just another commodity, but a public trust resource that governments have a legal and moral obligation to protect for present and future generations.

To learn more about water privatization and what to do to fight this alarming trend, please visit us online at waterkeeper.org

Giant transnational corporations
There are now a handful of major corporations delivering fresh water services and generating huge profits, mainly in poor, third world countries that can ill afford the cost. The three biggest - Suez and Vivendi [recently renamed Veolia Environment] of France and RWE-AG of Germany – control the water supplies of 300 million people in more than 100 countries. Their control is growing at a frightening rate – ten years ago, they serviced around 50 million people in 12 countries. And, although less than ten percent of the world's water systems are currently under private control, at the rate they are expanding, the top three alone will control 75 percent of the water systems in Europe and North America in a decade.

Billions of dollars
In 2002 Vivendi generated over $12 billion in water-related revenues. All three water giants are presently among the top one hundred corporations in the world; together their annual revenues in 2001 were almost $160 billion and growing at ten percent a year - outpacing the economies of many of the countries in which they operate. Room for growth is tremendous. The water market in the United States alone is worth $82 billion, while the world-wide bottled water industry is worth $35 billion. Worldwide potential water revenue is estimated to be anywhere between $400 billion and $3 trillion. Waterworks infrastructure maintenance and upgrade in U.S. cities alone is estimated to total between $150 billion and $1 trillion over the next three decades.