{"id":142630,"date":"2014-12-11T20:49:46","date_gmt":"2014-12-11T20:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=142630"},"modified":"2014-12-11T20:49:46","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T20:49:46","slug":"rather-get-water-city-government-corporation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/money\/rather-get-water-city-government-corporation\/","title":{"rendered":"Would You Rather Get Your Water From Your City Government – or From a Corporation?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michelle Chen<\/em><\/p>\n

In this uncertain economy, whether you think the glass is half full or half empty, you probably take for granted the fact you can fill it by turning on the tap. Last summer,\u00a0that basic service vanished for Detroit\u2019s working-class households<\/a>: neighborhoods awoke to the humiliating reality that in the world\u2019s richest nation, this impoverished city\u2019s water had run dry\u2013the city\u2019s stopgap \u201cemergency\u201d response to fiscal collapse.<\/p>\n

Detroit\u2019s devastation seems freakish, but we may soon see more resource crises nationwide if pro-business officials decide water isn\u2019t so much an essential entitlement as a commodity to be traded like corn and crude oil.\u00a0According to research by Corporate Accountability International<\/a>(CAI), the experience of dozens of communities that have experimented with privatizing their water infrastructures illustrates the danger of prioritizing cost concerns over human rights.<\/p>\n

Water privatization in poorer countries has been criticized for leading to exploitation and destabilization of local infrastructures, particularly under\u00a0\u201cfree trade\u201d systems that encourage pro-market reforms<\/a>. But in US cities too, water systems are being bled by market forces. And in nations rich and poor, when water is corporatized, CAI warns, injustice tends to flow freely:<\/p>\n

Private water corporations frame water in business terms, placing economic outcomes over social objectives, preventing prioritization of the poor and vulnerable. Treating water as a mere commodity also relegates it to the whims of the market and bypasses the accountability and transparency of the public sector.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But the\u00a0cruel effects of water commodification<\/a>\u00a0are felt worldwide.\u00a0With the water shutdown<\/a>, Detroit exhibited the sort of neoliberal politics that foster both \u201causterity\u201d and the usual policy response\u2013privatization<\/a>. When the water got shut down last summer\u2013collectively punishing supposedly \u201cdelinquent\u201d customers who were behind on their bills\u2013CAI and community groups\u00a0expressed fears about the city\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0move to\u00a0consult with a premiere water multinational, Veolia<\/a>, about revamping the water system and cutting costs. CAI Media Director Jesse Bragg believes Veolia may be looking to seize control of its public water infrastructure, as it has done in other regions, and that with Detroit\u2019s finances in a desperate state, \u201cVeolia may recommend privatization and use this contract as a foot in the door.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michelle Chen In this uncertain economy, whether you think the glass is half full or half empty, you probably take for granted the fact you can fill it by turning on the tap. Last summer,\u00a0that basic service vanished for Detroit\u2019s working-class households: neighborhoods awoke to the humiliating reality that in the world\u2019s richest nation, this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,52],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-142630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-money"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}