Reclaming Public Water!
Participatory Alternatives to Privatisation

Due to the ideology-driven privatisation wave, the 1990's was
essentially a lost decade for the struggle for clean water for all.
High-profile privatisation failures in major cities of the South
provide ample evidence that the water needs of the poor should not be
left in the hands of profit-driven transnational water corporations.
The time has now come to refocus the global water debate to the key
questions: how to improve and expand public water delivery around the
world?

Important lessons can be learned from people-centred, participatory
public models that are in place or under development in cities like
Dhaka (Bangladesh), Cochabamba (Bolivia), Savelugu (Ghana) and Recife
(Brazil), to mention a few. In these cities, public water supply has
been improved through increased popular control and other democratic
reforms. In all their diversity, these models provide inspiring and
viable alternatives both to failing state-run utilities and profit-
driven private water management.

Read the new TNI/CEO briefing