February 3, 2003 — The explosive growth of three private water utility companies in the last 10 years raises fears that mankind may be losing control of its most vital resource to a handful of monopolistic corporations. In Europe and North America, analysts predict that within the next 15 years these companies will control 65 percent to 75 percent of what are now public waterworks. The companies have worked closely with the World Bank and other international financial institutions to gain a foothold on every continent. They aggressively lobby for legislation and trade laws to force cities to privatize their water and set the agenda for debate on solutions to the world's increasing water scarcity. The companies argue they are more efficient and cheaper than public utilities. Critics say they are predatory capitalists that ultimately plan to control the world's water resources and drive up prices even as the gap between rich and poor widens. The fear is that accountability will vanish, and the world will lose control of its source of life. >>
WASHINGTON, February 3, 2003 — An analysis of World Bank lending policies shows that the bank has increasingly linked aid to privatization. >>
OTTAWA, February 3, 2003 — In conjunction with ICIJ's global investigation, Bob Carty, an ICIJ member in Canada and a radio producer with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), has prepared a five-part documentary series. >>
PARIS, February 4, 2003 — France is the birthplace of modern water privatization, but its leading companies have been rocked by scandals and allegations of influence-peddling. >>
PARIS, February 4, 2003 — While peddling the benefits of free-market privatization abroad, France carefully guards its own borders against foreign companies, claiming water is too important to be controlled by outsiders. >>
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, February 5, 2003 — The biggest problem in this country ravaged by AIDS, tuberculosis and malnourishment, is water. Few can afford it. But with World Bank blessing, the government is trying to end water subsidies, forcing millions of South Africans to seek their water from polluted rivers and lakes. The result: one of the largest outbreaks of cholera. >>
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, February 6, 2003 — Global water giants partnered to run a water system in the Argentine capital that the World Bank touted as a model of privatization. Investors extracted millions in profits. But now the model is crumbling under the weight of mounting costs. >>
MANILA, Philippines, February 7, 2003 — Politically connected families and private companies split Manila in two to share turf. At first, the two companies brought miracles by bringing running water to thousands of poor people who never had it. Now the miracle has faded as one company bails out, leaving behind enormous debts. >>
JAKARTA, Indonesia, February 10, 2003 — Two powerful multinationals deftly used the World Bank and a compliant dictatorship to split control of a major city's waterworks. >>
BOGOTA, Colombia, February 11, 2003 — Coastal Cartagena was the first of about 50 cities and towns to privatize its water in Colombia. The capital Bogotá bucked the privatization trend, refused World Bank money and transformed its public utility into the most successful in Colombia. >>
WASHINGTON, February 12, 2003 — Foreign private companies are gearing up to control a multibillion-dollar market to upgrade the nation's aging water system, after spending millions of dollars over the last six years to sway Congressional votes on privatization laws. Americans have the safest and cheapest public water systems in the world. But, as foreign companies flex their financial muscle, America's drinking water may not be so cheap or public for long. >>
INDIANAPOLIS, February 12, 2003 — When Indianapolis suddenly found its 131-year old private water company for sale, swift action gave the city control over its utility and the new company hired to run it. >>
CAMDEN, N.J., February 12, 2003 — Camden's poor fell victim in a water deal polluted by the city's chronic debt and rampant corruption. >>
ADELAIDE, Australia, February 14, 2003 — Fifteen months after Adelaide signed a contract turning over its waterworks to a private consortium controlled by Thames Water and Vivendi, the city was engulfed in a powerful sewage smell, which became known as "the big pong.'' >>
SYDNEY, Australia, February 14, 2003 — For two months in 1998, more than 3 million residents of Sydney were forced to boil their drinking water to kill parasites. While blame for the contamination was never established, a government-commissioned probe showed that a private water company's operational practices had risked the safety of the water supply. >>
WASHINGTON, April 7, 2003 — Leaked documents reveal that the European Union has asked 72 countries to open up their markets to private water companies. An exchange of e-mail reveals that these requests came after a period of intense cooperation and consultation between water companies and trade representatives of the European Commission, which is the executive body of the European Union, leading up to the most recent round of World Trade Organization negotiations designed to open up world markets for trade in services. >>