The perils of privatizing water
June 13, 2008 at 10:55 am by Thomas Wheatley in NewsThe American Prospect has an astounding special issue out — that’s available online with bonus articles — about the world’s growing freshwater crisis. The pieces range from the general — the grave threat we face from the dwindling of our most basic resource — to the specific — the oh-so-successful bottled-water industry.
And as is wont with any special issue documenting the missteps of man, Atlanta gets a mention. In a piece about the dangers of privatizing water systems, Wenonah Hunter, executive director of the Food and Water Watch in Washington, D.C., reminds us how well such an experiment worked out for Atlanta in the late 1990s.
Sadly, [French water and wastewater company] Suez and the other water corporations have had a similar record in the United States. United Water, a Suez subsidiary, began a 20-year, $428 million contract in 1999 to operate and manage Atlanta’s water and sewer system. At the time, United Water bragged that “Atlanta for us will be a reference worldwide, a kind of showcase.”
Instead, a fiasco ensued. The company overstated the amount of money it could save the city and underestimated the work needed to maintain and operate the system. In Atlanta, the company cut costs by firing almost 400 employees — half of the utilities staff. United Water tried to add $80 million to the contract and then, after the city refused, inflated billable costs, even billing the city for work it hadn’t performed. It raised sewer rates an average of 12 percent every year it had the contract.
There were other problems, as well. In 2003, the city’s deputy water commissioner told The Atlanta Journal- Constitution, “My biggest concern is a lot of people have lost confidence in the water itself. Over the past year, we’ve had so many boil water advisories and dis-colored water around the system.” Finally fed up with United Water, Atlanta terminated the contract later that year.
Well, better late than never.
Our days of rest are approaching and it’s doubtful the New York Times Magazine will be as cool as it was last week. If you want to bone up on an important issue, I recommend the articles.
(Photo from The American Prospect)
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