The Water Business: Corporations Versus People (Global Issues)

The worldwide privatization of public sector services has expanded market opportunities for transnational corporations enormously. Ann-Christian Holland visits countries as far apart as Britain and Argentina, Ghana and South Africa, to find the effect of privatization on that most basic of human needs, fresh water. She finds that two companies, Suez and Veolia, rapidly came to dominate nearly 80% of the privatized water market. As prices for water soared, massive public protests erupted in country after country. Holland interviewed senior corporate executives to get their responses, and sets out the arguments on both sides to present some of the innovative ideas and experiments for providing water as an essential service for all citizens.