In communities across the world, people are taking back their water. Cases of remunicipalization–getting what were privatized water and sanitation services back under public control–is the focus of a new book by the Netherlands-based Transnational Institute (TNI), and offers welcome respite from tales of the ever-encroaching reach of corporate power.
The trend of remunicipalization is accelerating, the new research says, and it’s “a story crying to be told.” “This report,” stated lead editor Satoko Kishimoto of TNI, “shows that water privatization, which has been promoted so heavily in recent years, is increasingly being rejected by cities worldwide after years of failed promises, poor services, and high prices.”
Public reclamation of water services has demonstrated clear benefits to communities, the researchers write, thereby “contradict[ing] neoliberal theorists, international financial institutions, and their expectations of superior private sector performance.” In the last fifteen years, the researchers note there have been 235 cases of such public take-back spanning 37 countries. A recent notable example happened just last month in Jakarta, Indonesia, where, the researchers write, a citizen lawsuit brought the privatization of […]