Pros And Cons Of Privatization Of Water

It’s no secret that water is essential for life. From humans to animals, we all need water in order to survive. Water should be universally considered and accepted as a human right, just like air. Through Resolution 64/292 the United Nations officially declared water as a human right in 2010 (UN). As stated by the researchers of, a huge problem we’re facing in this day and age is “privatization of water for corporate interest rather than human rights” (Johnson). When water rights are given to private corporations or companies whose main goal is to maximize profits instead of serve the public, many problems arise. Privatization enables exploitation of water, which leads to higher rates for consumers, compromised water quality, no control, and …show more content…
Some believe it is possible for public-private partnerships to actually work successfully, if and only if they are structured differently than they have predominantly been. Privatization can only work if the contracts are well written with the public’s interest in mind, as well as corporate transparency. This means every negative aspect from privatization must be addressed in an initial contract so that the interest of the community, the public sector is prioritized over making profits. For instance, contracts must be tightly regulated with safeguards for public interest (Prud’homme). Examples of this could be conditions like private companies forfeiting payments if water quality is not high enough or repairs are not timely enough. The process of how corporations and the consumers go about resolving disputes must be clearly written so consumers can address any failures in provision of service.(CITE Internet article) This is a somewhat unrealistic solution as corporations would most likely not agree to such contracts, due to the fact that they would lose considerable profits. There are, however “a range of “alternatives” to privatization, including public–public partnerships, remunicipalization” …show more content…
A huge part of PUPs involves using money efficiently to lower costs. Sharing services can conserve a lot of money as public water utilities work together through joint capital projects or service agreements. (cite) The most significant part of Public-Public partnerships is that no partner(s) can reap a profit through the partnership. Basically these partnerships provide the advantages of collaboration, without the underlying agenda of private companies/corporations aiming to maximize profits