Disadvantages Of Privatization

1492 Words6 Pages
1. Introduction The privatization processes are based on the granting by the states and local communities of the management of the water service, that is of the aqueducts or springs. This approach is known as "public-private partnership" and started from the second World Water Forum (Hague 2000) organized by the World Water Council and the Global Water Partnership which, together with this partner approach, launched a series of measures: integrated management of the resource; the tariff of water services based on the principle of total cost coverage (full-cost recovery) associated with the "polluter pays" principle; the increase in public funding to the sector through the main international financial agencies (World Bank) and International…show more content…
Such an approach is strengthened starting from the Johannesburg Conference (2002) and is proposed to the governments of Africa and Latin America, from the European Union, investment banks (European and international ones) and the main funding agencies, and has in fact been oriented to promote a model of privatization, i.e. entrusting water services to privates (see articles 27 and 29 of the conference). Decisive factors in promoting the commodification of water and the privatization of management have been the World Bank and the United Nations’ policies, promoted in support of water management based on the economic value of water and the delegation of management to the market economy, these approaches have contributed to limiting access to drinking water only to those who can afford to pay the water tariff. We can therefore say that following the commodification, the first steps towards the loss of the status of common good and human right for water, were the liberalization and privatization of the services of water distribution, collection and treatment - that is the so-called…show more content…
It is shown how controversial the process can be, and this is certainly due to the nature of the good itself. The trends are now changing though, the mobilizations which took place in the interested areas as the ones showed in Cochabamba are raising awareness in this respect. The international organizations are also pointing the importance of the free access to water, which implies though efforts not only in the existing infrastructures, but also a significant action must be taken towards the numbers of water sources which need sanitization processes, as shown in the graphic . At the moment 71% of the water sources are safe, and if the process of commodification will continue, what is sure is that its objective will have to be the provision of access to drinkable water to every human being. This will be the victory of the process of commodification of
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