A Political Ecology of Water Privatization

Notes

• This paper benefitted from presentation and discussion at the annual SPE conference, organized by Roger Keil and Simon Dalby (Ottawa, February 2002). Greg Albo, Andrew Biro, Philippe leBillon, Alex Loftus, Bob MacDermid, and Ben Page provided helpful comments on various drafts. Funding received during the course of this research from the British Academy, the Nuffield Foundation, Jesus College, Tarmac pic, and the School of Geography and the Environment (University of Oxford) is gratefully acknowledged.
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• On the Canadian debate: for a public sector union perspective, see CUPE's Water Watch campaign (http://www.cupe.ca). For an NGO perspective critical of water privatization, see the Council of Canadians’ Blue Planet Project (http://www.canadians.org), and for a business perspective supportive of water privatization, see the Canadian Council for Public Private Partnerships (http://www.pppcouncil.ca).
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• The literature on water supply privatization is extensive. For analyses of specific cases of water privatization, see, for example, K. Bakker, “Paying for Water: Water Charging and Equity in England and Wales,” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 26/2 (2001), pp. 143–164; K. Bakker and D. Hemson, “Privatizing Water: Hydropolitics in the New South Africa,” South African Journal of Geography 82/1(2000), pp. 3–12; R. Batley, “Public-private Relationships and Performance in Service Provision,” Urban Studies 33/4–5 (1996), pp. 723–751; P. Bond, “Privatization, Participation and Protest in the Restructuring of Municipal Services,” Urban Forum 9/1 (1998), pp. 37–75; M. Drakeford, “The Poverty of Privatization: Poorest Customers of the Privatized Gas, Water and Electricity Industries,” Critical Social Policy 17 (1997), pp. 115–132; D. Haarmayer and A. Mody, “Private Capital in Water and Sanitation,” Finance and Development 34 (March 1997), pp. 34–37; N. Johnstone and L. Wood, (eds.), Private Firms and Public Water- Realizing Social and Environmental Objectives in Developing Countries (London: Edward Elgar, 2001); A. J. Loftus and D. A. McDonald, “Of Liquid Dreams: A Political Ecology of Water Privatization in Buenos Aires,” Environment and Urbanization 13/2 (2001), pp. 179–199; J. O'Connell-Davidson, Privatization and Employment Relations: The Case of the Water Industry. (London: Mansell, 1993); D. Rivera, Private Sector Participation in Water Supply and Sanitation: Lessons from Six Developing Countries (Washington: World Bank Directions in Development, 1996); P. Saunders and C. Harris, Privatization and Popular Capitalism (Buckingham and Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1994).
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• J. Winpenny, Managing Water as an Economic Resource (London: Routledge, 1994), p. 110.
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• This is truer for water supply (i.e., water supplied in reticulation networks) than for water resources (i.e., bulk water). There are many more examples of water supply privatization than resources privatization and commercialization; Chile, the southwestern United States, and the Canary Islands being the most frequently cited examples.
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• For a discussion of different modes of public and private management and ownership, see M. Blokland, O. Braadbaart, and K. Schwartz, Private Business, Public Owners: Government Shareholdings in Water Enterprises (The Netherlands: Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning, and the Environment, 1999); R Franceys Private Sector Participation in the Water and Sanitation Sector (Loughborough and London: DFID Water Resources Occasional Papers. Water and Engineering Development Centre and the Department for International Development, 1997); T. Lee, “Alternatives for Private Participation in the Provision of Water Services,” Natural Resources Forum 20/4 (1996), pp. 333–341; A. Nickson, “The public-private mix in urban water supply,” International Review of Administrative Sciences 63/2 (1997), pp. 165–186; R. Noll, M. Shirley, and S. Cowan, “Reforming Urban Water Systems in Developing Countries,” in Krueger, A., (ed.), Economic Policy Reform: The Second Stage (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), pp. 243–291; R. Petrella, The Water Manifesto (London: Zed Books, 2001); M. Shirley, (ed.), Thirsting for Efficiency: Experiences in Reforming Urban Water Supply Systems (London: Elsevier, forthcoming); G. Silva, N. Tynan, and Y. Yilmaz, “Private Participation in the Water and Sewerage Sector—Recent Trends,” Public Policy for the Private Sector (Washington, DC: World Bank Group, Note 147,1998), pp. 1–8. For academic studies critical of the privatization process, with a focus on developing countries, see the Municipal Services Project website (http://qsil-ver.queensu.ca/∼mspadmin). For an international union perspective, see the very extensive Public Services International Research Unit's website (www.psiru.org). K. Bakker (forthcoming) “Urbanization and Water Privatization: Megacities and Urban Nature,” Paper forthcoming in a special issue on “landscapes of change in the developing world” in The Geographical Journal.
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• K. Bakker, “From Public to Private to…Public? Re-regulating and ‘Mutualizing’ Private Water Supply in England and Wales,” Geoforum (forthcoming 2003).
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• Ibid., footnote (iv).
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• The term “institution” is here understood in its sociological sense of rules, norms, and customs.
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