The New Economy of Water: The Risks and Benefits of Globalization and Privatization of Fresh Water

21

Privatization of Water
Food and water are basic rights. But we pay for
food. Why should we not pay for water? Ismail
Serageldin at the Second World Water Forum, The
Hague
Water should not be privatized, commodified,
traded or exported in bulk for commercial purposes.
Maude Barlow, International Forum on
Globalization
the purpose of government is to make sure
services are provided, not necessarily to provide
services. Mario Cuomo
One of the most important and controversial trends in
the global water arena is the accelerating transfer of the
production, distribution, or management of water or water
services from public entities into private hands a process
loosely called privatization. Treating water as an economic
good, and privatizing water systems, are not new ideas. Private
entrepreneurs, investor-owned utilities, or other market tools
have long provided water or water services in different parts
of the world. What is new is the extent of privatization efforts
underway today, and the growing public awareness of, and
attention, to problems associated with these efforts.
The issue has resurfaced for several reasons: first, public
water agencies have been unable to satisfy the most basic
needs for water for all humans; second, major multinational
corporations have greatly expanded their efforts to take over
responsibility for a larger portion of the water service market
than ever before; and third, several recent highly publicized
privatization efforts have failed or generated great
controversy.
The privatization of water encompasses an enormous variety
of possible water-management arrangements. Privatization
can be partial, leading to so-called public/private
partnerships, or complete, leading to the total elimination of
government responsibility for water systems. At the largest
scale, private water companies build, own, and operate water
systems around the world with annual revenues of
approximately $300 billion, excluding revenues for sales of

bottled water (Gopinath 2000). At the smallest scale, private

water vendors and sales of water at small kiosks and shops
provide many more individuals and families with basic water
supplies than they did 30 years ago. Taken all together, the
growing roles and responsibilities of the private sector have
important and poorly understood implications for water and
human well-being.
As a measure of the new importance of privatization, the
second World Water Forum in the Hague in March 2000 gave
special emphasis to the need to mobilize new financial
resources to solve water problems and called for greater
involvement by the private sector. Indeed, the Framework
for Action released at that meeting called for $105 billion
per year in new investment over and above the estimated
$75 billion per year now spent to meet drinking water,
sanitation, waste treatment, and agricultural water needs
between now and 2025. The Framework called for 95 percent
of this new investment to come from private sources (GWP
2000). There was enormous controversy at this meeting about
the appropriate role of governments and non-governmental
organizations, and a planned public workshop and discussion
on privatization and globalization of water was cancelled. In
addition, the World Bank, other international aid agencies,
and some water organizations like the World Water Council
are increasingly pushing privatization in their efforts, but
they lack a common set of guidelines and principles.
Along with the growing efforts at water privatization, there
is rapidly growing opposition among local community
groups, unions, human rights organizations, and even public
water providers. Protests sometimes violent have
occurred in many places, including Bolivia, Paraguay, South
Africa, the Philippines, and various globalization conferences
around the world. Opposition arises from concerns over the
economic implications of privatizing water resources, the
risks to ecosystems, the power of corporate players, foreign
control over a fundamental natural resource, inequities of
access to water, and the exclusion of communities from
decisions about their own resources. This report reviews why
efforts are growing to turn over responsibility for public
provision of water and water services to the private sector,

22

Peter H. Gleick, Gary Wolff, Elizabeth L. Chalecki, Rachel Reyes

the history of privatization efforts, and the risks of these

efforts. We also offer some fundamental principles that we
believe are necessary to prevent inequitable, uneconomic,
and environmentally damaging privatization agreements.

Drivers of Water Privatization

In 1992, the summary report from the water conference in
Dublin set forth four principles, including the concept that
water should be treated as an economic good (ICWE 1992).
This principle is, without doubt, the most important and
controversial of the four. It was sufficiently vague to be
accepted by the participants, and yet sufficiently radical to
cause serious rethinking of water management, planning, and
policy. In the years following Dublin, the concept of water as
an economic good has been used to challenge traditional
approaches to government provision of basic water services.
Economists seized upon the idea to argue that water should
be treated as a private good, subject to corporate control,
financial rules, markets forces, and competitive pricing.
Various pressures are driving governments to consider and
adopt water privatization. These pressures fall loosely into
five categories:

societal (the belief that privatization can help satisfy

unmet basic water needs)
commercial (the belief that more business is better)
financial (the belief that the private sector can
mobilize capital faster and cheaper than the public
sector)
ideological (the belief that smaller government is
better) and
pragmatic (the belief that competent, efficient
water-system operations require private
participation) (Neal et al. 1996, Savas 1987).

Privatization efforts in the United Kingdom and Europe were

ideologically driven at first, but are increasingly characterized
as commercial and pragmatic (Beecher 1997). Privatization
efforts in the United States were initially pragmatic, but are
now strongly ideological, as can be seen by the public policy
push being given to water privatization by libertarian and
free-market policy institutes. Privatization efforts in the
developing world can primarily be described as financial and
pragmatic, though some argue that the social benefits are
significant (GWP 2000).
Interestingly, several countries with strong ideological
foundations have also chosen to explore water privatization
for pragmatic reasons. China and Cuba, for example, have

both recently awarded contracts to private companies to

develop and operate municipal water-supply systems and build
wastewater treatment plants.
The provision of water to individuals, families, and communities
has long been considered an essential public good, and hence
a core governmental responsibility. In many countries, including
the United States, people expect safe drinking water to be
distributed to everyone at low or subsidized prices. Yet despite
intensive efforts in the 1980s and early 1990s, more than 1.2
billion of the six billion people on the Earth still lack access to
clean drinking water. Nearly 2.5 billion do not have adequate
sanitation services (WHO 2000). This failure is one factor
leading governments, companies, NGOs, and individuals to
rethink their attitudes and approaches to water management
worldwide. With world population eventually expected to
increase to nine billion, or ten billion, or even more, water
managers have realized that adequate water services cannot
be provided without enormous increases in investment,
improvements in the efficiency of water capture, storage,
distribution, and use, and greater wastewater reclamation and
reuse.
Water is an essential resource for economic development.
Up to a point, greater water availability increases labor supply
and reliability by reducing water-related diseases, lowers
constraints on agricultural and industrial development, and
provides direct employment opportunities as well. A recent
analysis ranked water treatment as the second most critical
infrastructure investment for emerging economies (Tan 2000).
Historically, governments have viewed increased water supply
over and above, or even instead of, meeting basic water
needs as a way to strengthen the overall attractiveness of
an economy for both private investors and official
development assistance. At the same time, private
corporations are moving to ensure adequate water supplies
for industrial development when governments cannot, or do
not, address corporate concerns. Recent research indicates
that increased economic growth need not always require
increased water development, but the trend toward
privatization still reflects this traditional belief (Gleick 2001).
Water-supply projects can be extremely capital intensive,
though estimates of future needs vary widely. The World
Bank estimates that new investment required for water
infrastructure over the next decade will exceed $60 billion
per year. In mid-2001, the American Water Works Association
released a study suggesting that $250 billion may be needed
over the next 30 years just to upgrade and maintain the
existing drinking water system in the United States (AWWA
2001). The Framework for Action that emerged from the
Second World Water Forum in The Hague in March 2000
called for an additional $100 billion annually from private

The New Economy of Water: The Risks and Benefits of Globalization and Privatization of Fresh Water

23

sources for the next 25 years to meet basic water needs

(GWP 2000).

dropping to only 15 percent by 2000 (Beecher et al. 1995).

As Blake (1991) points out:

Whatever the actual investment required, emerging economies

face significant hurdles finding the capital to expand coverage
in rapidly growing urban areas, maintain existing infrastructure,
and treat wastewater to even minimal quality standards. One
option is for governments to turn to the private sector, with
its greater access to private capital (Faulkner 1997). Because
of this, private participation in the water sector is growing
especially quickly in developing countries.

Private companies supplied water to Boston from

1796 to 1848, and to Baltimore from 1807 to 1854.
As late as 1860, 79 out of 156 water works in the
United States were privately owned. But eventually
most cities turned to municipal ownership. The profit
motive was ill suited to the business of supplying
water to city dwellers. Private companies were
reluctant to invest enough capital; they preferred to
lay their distributing pipes through the wealthier
sections of the city and to hold back from carrying
water into the poorer districts. (Blake 1991)

Governments must, of course, also spend limited public and

international financial capital to meet other social needs
(Yergin and Stanislaw 1999). By creating water systems that
are self-supported through private investment and by
implementing water pricing that pays back the investments,
developing country governments can significantly reduce
their fiscal and balance of payment problems (Shambaugh
1999). It is also difficult for government officials subject to
political processes to raise water prices; privatization permits
governments to give that problem to private entities.
The perception that companies are more competent and
efficient than government also contributes to pressures to
privatize water systems. The complexity of large water
systems and their poor historical performance have
encouraged the belief that the technical and managerial skills
needed to improve water supply and management systems
are only available, or at least more efficiently applied, through
partial or complete privatization of water supply. Many
developing country politicians also view introducing
competition as desirable (Shambaugh 1999). Initially favorable
results from a few privatization actions have supported these
beliefs (see Sidebar 8), although experience with government
management of water systems in the industrialized countries
demonstrates that governments are not necessarily less
efficient or competent than business.

History of Privatization
Private involvement in water supply has a long history. Indeed,
in some places, private ownership and provision of water was
the norm, until governments began to assume these
responsibilities. In the United States, municipal services were
often provided by private organizations in the early 1800s.
Toward the latter half of that century, municipalities started
to confront problems with access and service and began a
transition toward public control and management. In
particular, private companies were failing to provide access
to all citizens in an equitable manner. Private water companies
provided 94 percent of the U.S. market in the 19th century,

Anderson (1991) notes that the experience in Chicago and

other cities in the United States was similar.
Private companies were notorious for choosing a
water source that would minimize the initial
investment outlay, and for ignoring the concomitant
shortcomings in water quantity and quality. Only
municipal governments, so the argument goes, had
the foresight and the latitude to invest large sums
now in order to gain a future payoff in the form of
years of excellent water. (Anderson 1991)

Sidebar 8: Privatization in Buenos Aires, Argentina

The 1993 privatization of water supply in Buenos
Aires, Argentina led to some rapid improvements in
water availability.
The percentage of the population served has
increased from 70 percent to 85 percent, an addition
of 1.6 million customers, many of who are poor. The
privatization reduced water company staff by 50
percent, reduced non-payment of water bills from
20 percent to 2 percent, and resulted in more modern
and efficient billing and water-delivery operations.
The contract governing the privatization action
requires a 27 percent decrease in water prices over
time. It is too soon to know whether privatization will
achieve this goal, or eventually result in higher water
prices or distributional inequities.
Sources: Trmolet (2001), p.4, Tully (2000), Muller
(1999).

24

Peter H. Gleick, Gary Wolff, Elizabeth L. Chalecki, Rachel Reyes

In 19th century France, the trend moved in the opposite

direction: municipalities that previously had responsibility for
providing water services began to contract services to private
operators. Over the years, these operators expanded beyond
the borders of France and as a result, they now have a dominant
position in much of the world in providing private water services.
Major international efforts to privatize water systems and
markets are still a relatively recent phenomenon, with major
transfers taking place only over the past ten to fifteen years.
By the end of 2000, at least 93 countries had partially
privatized water or wastewater services (Brubaker 2001),
including Argentina, Chile, China, Colombia, the Philippines,
South Africa, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Central
Europe, but less than ten percent of all water is currently
managed by the private sector (LeClerc and Raes 2001).
In South America, public monopolies were the norm until
the mid-1990s. As in many other regions, public water systems
consistently failed to provide universal coverage, to treat most
wastewater, and to find and reduce water losses that can be
as high as 50 percent. Because of these failures, governments
in South America increasingly seek private sector
involvement. In some cases, such as Buenos Aires,
governments have sold or leased water facilities, allowing
private operators to sell services directly to the public, with
government regulation. Mexico City took another approach
to privatization, contracting the rights to operate parts of the
city water system to multiple operators, with the goal of
stimulating competition among them (Waddell nd). By 2000,
almost all countries in the region have begun to commit
themselves to long-term private concessions. Chile has gone
farther than most by combining the granting of concessions
with private ownership of water resources.
Major cities in Asia also suffer from inadequate
infrastructure, huge water losses, inadequate sewage
treatment, and lack of service to large numbers of peri-urban
residents. Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, and the
Philippines are all exploring various forms of privatization,
and the water and wastewater utilities in almost every major
city in Oceania have been taken over by private entities, or
have contracted some important services. Recent efforts in
Manila and Malaysia have run into political or economic
controversy, causing private companies and governments to
rethink the design of contracts and the conditions for
concessions, but privatization efforts seem to be accelerating.
Nations in Europe have also explored a variety of different
models recently, and the UK, Germany, France, and Italy all
now encourage water privatization. In France and in the UK,
the process is far advanced. The British, under Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher, for example, sold state-owned water
operations to private investors more than a decade ago. Some

of those newly privatized companies have become

multinational players in privatization markets. Service
providers in all four countries initially tried to keep prices
low, but have recently imposed large price increases in order
to upgrade their plants and distribution systems to accepted
European standards. These price increases have led to
growing consumer distrust, though some argue that
governments would have similarly had to raise taxes or
increase borrowing to make comparable improvements, or
worse, would have failed to make them.
The United States and Canada have moved more slowly
toward privatization. The United States has long had a mix
of privately owned and publicly regulated water and wastewater
utilities, though an estimated 85 percent of residences still receive
water from public agencies (see Sidebar 9).

The Players
There are a handful of major international private water
companies, but two French multinational corporations
dominate the sector: Vivendi SA and Suez Lyonnaise des
Eaux (soon to be called Ondeo). These two companies own
or have interests in water projects in more than 120 countries
and each claims to provide water to around 100 million people
(Barlow 1999, FTGWR 2000: Vol. 94, http://www.suez.fr/
metiers/english/index.htm) (Tables 4 and 5). Vivendis water
activities are, themselves, a small part of the larger company
Vivendi Universal, which was created in December 2000
when it merged with the Seagram Company to form a global
media and telecommunications company. As an example of
the diversity of Vivendis activities, in spring 2001, Vivendi
purchased MP3.com. The total annual revenue from the
interlocking subsidiaries of Vivendi in 2000 exceeded $37
billion, of which more than 25 percent came from the water
business (Market Guide 2001).

Table 4: Population Served by Vivendi Water and Wastewater

Concessions
Population Supplied in 2000

Population (millions)

France
Western Europe
Central and Eastern Europe
Middle East and Africa
North America
Latin America
Asia

25.0
18.5
6.3
8.5
16.8
7.8
14.6

Source: FTGWR 2000:Vol. 94, p.10.

The New Economy of Water: The Risks and Benefits of Globalization and Privatization of Fresh Water

Suez is active in more than 100 countries and claims to

provide 110 million people with water and wastewater
services. Of the 30 biggest cities to award contracts between
1995 and 2000, 20 chose Suez, including Manila, Jakarta,
Casablanca, Santiago de Chile, and Atlanta. Suez also
purchases stakes or full interests in other water companies:

Table 5: Population Served by Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux

Water and Wastewater Concessions
Population Supplied in 2000
Europe and Mediterranean
North America
South America
Asia Pacific
Africa
Total

Population (millions)
43
14
25
23
5
110

with its $1 billion purchase of United Water Resources, it

became the second largest manager of municipal systems in
the United States, just behind American Water Works. Suez
also purchased Nalco and Calgon in the United States for
$4.5 billion, making it the biggest provider of water treatment
chemicals for both industry and cities. In 2000, Suez reported profits
of 1.9 billion euros on sales of 35 billion euros: of this, 9.1 billion
euros (or 44 percent) of revenues came from their water businesses
(http://www.finance.suez-lyonnaise.com).
Other companies also have major water interests, including
Thames Water and United Utilities in Great Britain, Bechtel
and Enron in the United States, and Aguas de Barcelona in
Spain. To add to the complexity, however, many of these
companies have interlocking directorates or partial interests in
each other. For example, in spring 1999, Vivendi purchased U.S.
Filter Corporation. United Utilities of the UK has joint ventures
with Bechtel. United Water Resources in the United States is
partly owned by Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux.

Source: http://www.suez.fr/metiers/english/index.htm

Sidebar 9: Water Utility Privatization in Atlanta, Georgia

Throughout much of the 1980s and 90s, Atlantas
wastewater system faced growing problems, including
aging infrastructure and inadequate wastewater
treatment. Federal, state, and private complaints resulted
in millions of dollars in fines and a consent decree
specifying expensive corrective action (Brubaker 2001).
Faced with the need for almost US$1 billion in capital
for urgent improvements, the city government began to
explore the possibility of privatization of some aspects
of the local water system. The hope in Atlanta was that
privatization would dramatically reduce annual operating
costs, reduce the likelihood of rate increases, and free
up money for new capital improvements.
In late 1998, the city signed a 20-year agreement to
contract water services to United Water Services Atlanta
(UWSA), a subsidiary of Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux. While
the company made a number of innovative concessions,
they also benefited from some significant tax breaks
offered by the city. UWSA agreed to locate its regional
headquarters in Atlanta, committed to hiring 20 percent
of its workforce from the area, and offered to provide
US$1 million in annual funding for water research at
Clark Atlanta University. The firm is benefiting from tax
incentives of as much as $8,000 per employee (see http:/
/waterindustry.org/frame-8.htm Atlanta Project in
Capsule).

25

The 20-year agreement between the city and UWSA

went into effect on January 1, 1999, covering the
operations and maintenance of two water-treatment plants
serving 1.5 million people, 12 storage tanks, 7 pumping
stations, fire hydrants, water mains, billing, collections,
and customer service. The contract set UWSAs annual
operations and maintenance fee at US$21.4 million
thus UWSA can count on nearly half a billion dollars in
service fees to be paid by the City of Atlanta over the
term of the contract. This is substantially less than the
city was expected to spend running the system itself over
the same period. The city will continue to spend
approximately US$6 million annually on power,
insurance, and monitoring the contract agreements.
Atlanta retained responsibility for most capital
investments. The agreement also stipulated that there
would be no layoffs during the life of the contract, but
staff reductions due to retirements and voluntary
departures substantially reduced employment costs. At
the time of turnover, many of the municipal employees
objected to the privatization agreement. While it is too
soon to know how well the goals of the effort to privatize
the citys water system will be, other U.S. municipalities
are watching closely (see Waddell nd and Brubaker 2001
for more details).

26

Peter H. Gleick, Gary Wolff, Elizabeth L. Chalecki, Rachel Reyes

Forms of Privatization
Despite the growing debate about privatization, there is
considerable misunderstanding and misinformation
circulating about what the term itself means. Privatization
can take many forms. Only the most absolute form transfers
full ownership and operation of water systems to the private
sector. Much more common are forms that leave public
ownership of water resources unaffected and include
transferring some operational responsibilities for water
supply or wastewater management from the public to the
private sector. Privatization also does not, or should not,
absolve public agencies of their responsibility for
environmental protection, public health and safety, or
monopoly oversight.
There are many different forms of privatization arrangements,
agreements, and models. There is also a fundamental
difference between public and private ownership of water
assets. Private ownership involves transferring assets to a
private utility. Public ownership involves keeping the assets
in the public domain, but integrating the private sector in
various utility operations and activities through contract
(Beecher 1997). Public or private-sector employees can
perform various functions. As an illustration, Table 6 lists
several functions that could be assigned to private or public
employees in thousands of combinations ranging from
completely public to completely private operations. These
different forms have very different implications worthy of
careful analysis.

area (in some cases, an entire country). Public managers

make decisions, and public funds are used to finance
construction, operation, and maintenance of facilities. Funds
may be provided from general government revenues, in
competition with other government investments or a water
agency may be self-supporting via water charges.
Governments are responsible for oversight, setting standards,
and facilitating public communication and participation.
Independent, special-purpose water agencies or districts can

Table 6: Water System Functions That Can be Privatized

1.

Capital improvement planning and budgeting (including water

conservation and wastewater reclamation issues)

2.

Finance of capital improvements

3.

Design of capital improvements

4.

Construction of capital improvements

5.

Operation of facilities

6.

Maintenance of facilities

7.

Pricing decisions

8.

Management of billing and revenue collection

9.

Management of payments to employees or contractors

10. Financial and risk management

11. Establishment, monitoring, and enforcement of water quality
and other service standards

The different functions in Table 6 can be combined, or broken

into even more sub-functions (e.g., design of reservoirs versus
design of neighborhood-scale distribution piping). The
functions can also be performed privately in one geographic
area and publicly in another (e.g., northern and southern
halves of a metropolitan area). In the remainder of this
chapter we describe fully public water systems and compare
them to four variations of models of privatization. Figure 5
locates these models in comparison with each other and
the many forms of privatization not discussed here, using
ownership and management of assets as organizing
principles.

Fully Public Water Systems

The various private models described below must be
contrasted with fully public water systems. Fully public
management of water often takes place through national or
municipal government agencies, districts, or departments
dedicated to providing water services for a designated service

Figure 5: Types of Public and Private Water Providers. Types of public and private
water providers characterized by the public and private nature of the assets and
management.
Source: Blokland et al. (1999).

The New Economy of Water: The Risks and Benefits of Globalization and Privatization of Fresh Water

have technical and financial capacity equal to private

corporations. The poor record of government in many less
developed countries has caused this fact to be obscured, and
is driving the privatization process more rapidly in developing
countries than in, for example, the United States or many
European Union countries.
Another form of public management involves cooperatives
and user associations in local water-system governance.
Typically, local users join together to provide public
management or oversight. An example is the public water
cooperative in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, which serves nearly one
hundred thousand customers. It arose out of a history of
central government neglect and, consequently, a strong belief
in decentralization. Customers are split into water districts,
each covering approximately ten thousand people. All
customers have decision-making powers through elections
for different water authorities. Elections to six-year terms
are staggered, and different authorities are designed to
supervise each other. The system is also externally audited
each year. Despite the common belief that cooperatives
create greater participation by customers, voter turnout has
been low. For example, turnout was only 2.5 percent in the
June 1998 elections (Nickson 1998).
In 1997, the cooperative compared well to other Bolivian
utilities in terms of efficiency, equity, and effectiveness. It
received its share of a World Bank loan for all Bolivian water
utilities and was quicker to reach the goals funded with the
loan. The group incorporates the ideas of a basic water
requirement and affordability for the poor through varying
rate structures. It also incorporates conservation through
increasing block rates, which are not applied to the very poor.

Public Water Corporations and Corporate Utilities

Private-sector participation in public water companies has a
long history. In this model, ownership of water systems can
be split among private and public shareholders in a corporate
utility. Majority ownership, however, is usually maintained
within the public sector, while private ownership is often
legally restricted, for example, to 20 percent or less of total
shares outstanding. Such organizations typically have a
corporate structure, a managing director to guide operations,
and a Board of Directors with overall responsibility. This
model is found in the Netherlands, Poland, Chile, and the
Philippines (Blokland et al. 1999).
A main benefit of the system is that it combines two
potentially conflicting goals of water supply. Private owners
seek to recover costs and maximize profits. Public owners
may also seek to recover costs, but they are more likely to

27

embrace concerns about affordability, water quality, equity

of access, and expansion of service.
Empirical evidence suggests such models can attain a high
level of operational efficiency and quality of service. Another
strength is the stronger potential for public participation and
protection of consumer rights. In the Philippines, the Board
includes consumer rights associations and in the Netherlands
consumer associations publish comparisons among similar
companies. This type of customer representation encourages
efficiency and discourages political exploitation of the water utility.
Public corporations may have less access to capital, though
many have received multilateral development bank funds and
the Netherlands system has a strong enough performance
record to receive commercial bank loans. The Dutch model
also holds the Managing Director personally liable for losses
due to mismanagement increasing the incentive for
efficiency, quality, and protection against political intervention.

Service and Leasing Contracts: Mixed Management

In some cases, public water utilities may give private entities
responsibility for operation and maintenance activities,
general services contracts, or control over management of
leased facilities. Ownership continues to reside in public hands.
Such models do not usually address financing issues associated
with new facilities, or create better access to private capital
markets. They do, however, bring in managerial and
operational expertise that may not available locally.
Leasing contracts may include tariff (revenue) collection
responsibilities as well as operation and maintenance (Rivera
1996). Such contracts may last for 10 to 15 years or more and
arrangements are sometimes made for the private company to
share some in the increases in revenues generated from better
management and bill collection (Panos 1998). Service contracts
range from smaller, one-time arrangements such as meter
installation or pipeline construction to longer-term
comprehensive arrangements. Areas in which service contracts
have proven effective include: maintenance and repair of
equipment, water and sewerage networks, and pumping stations;
meter installation and maintenance; collection of service
payments; and data processing (Yepes 1992).

Concession Models
Much of the debate in recent years over privatization has
revolved around more comprehensive concessions to the
private sector. This is especially true in Latin America and
Asia. The full-concession model transfers operation and
management responsibility for the entire water-supply system

28

Peter H. Gleick, Gary Wolff, Elizabeth L. Chalecki, Rachel Reyes

along with most of the risk and financing responsibility to the

private sector. Specifications for risk allocation and investment
requirements are set by contract. To recoup heavy initial
investments, concessions are usually long-term, as long as
25 to 50 years. Technical and managerial expertise may be
transferred to the local municipality and community over time,
as local employees gain experience.
Variations on full concessions include Build-OperateTransfer (BOT), Build-Operate-Train-Transfer (BOTT),
Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT), Rehabilitate-OperateTransfer (ROT), and Build-Operate-Own (BOO). These
arrangements can be thought of as partial concessions that
give responsibilities to private companies, but only for a portion
of the water-supply system. Ownership of capital facilities may
be transferred to the government at the end of the contract.
Training of local workers and managers over years prior to the
transfer, with their jobs retained from some period after transfer,
is a way of transferring skills along with the capital asset.
For both full and partial concessions, governments and
companies are finding that responsibilities and risks must be
defined in great detail in the concession contract since such
contracts are for a lengthy period, and ultimately govern how
the concession will perform (Komives 2001). Case-by-case
concession contract writing has led to vastly different
outcomes for similar physical and cultural settings. The
benefits to the public appear to be maximized when the
government serves as a skillful contract negotiator.

Fully Private Businesses and Small-Scale Entrepreneurs

The opposite extreme from government agency provision
and management of water is supply and management by fully
private actors, whether large corporations or small-scale
entrepreneurs. In this model, water-quality regulation and
other means of protecting public goods, such as basic water
rights or protection of environmental resources, may be nonexistent. Fully private businesses and entrepreneurs are
already often found where the existing water utility has low
coverage or poor service. They may obtain water directly
from a water utility, indirectly from the utility through
customers who have utility service, or from private water
sources. In some cases, early settlers of an area have privately
developed piped water systems, with later settlers becoming
customers of, rather than partners in, the piped system. Private
providers operate most often in poor urban and peri-urban
areas, but they also serve higher income groups or businesses
when water is scarce or inconvenient to obtain.
Private suppliers of water also co-exist with public systems
when the public system is unreliable, inconvenient, or rationed

(e.g., the utility pressurizes pipes only a few hours each day).
In Kathmandu, Nepal, water from privately controlled sources
are sold by tanker truck to both low- and high-income areas
of the city unserved by regular, reliable supply. Customers
may turn to private vendors when they have more money
than time for water collection. The public provision of tankered
water can also involve high costs and even corruption: in
parts of Mexico households dependent on public tankering
services must often tip providers to ensure service (Muoz
2001).
Private businesses and small-scale entrepreneurs often
operate free of regulation in less developed countries. Private
water companies are usually regulated to some extent (e.g.,
water quality) in more developed countries. Without
regulation, high prices or low water quality can cause
significant social problems. Numerous studies have shown
that the poor often pay much more for water from private
suppliers or small-scale vendors than they would pay if a
regulated community water system, piped or otherwise, were
put into place. For example, in El Alto, Bolivia, where a
concession was granted in the mid-1990s, households with
private connections spend around $2.20 per month for 10
cubic meters, while those relying on private vendors pay over
$35.00 for the same account of water (Komives 2001).