Treating Water as Common Good

“No to water privatization – Yes to water as a human right.” (Bakker 2010:2)

In March 2000, these words were written down on bodies of protestors to the World Water Forum in The Hague. One of the main arguments of opponents of privatization is that it is unethical to profit from water, because it is the essential substance for life. This is why David Harvey calls water privatization “accumulation of dispossession” (Bakker 2010:2), which leads to social and environmentally inequities. Perreault points out the dualistic nature of water. It is both a natural physical entity that becomes a resource through human labor and the most basic precondition to life: Water is “as dependent on social institutions and labors as it is on climate and geology” (2004:269).

The opponents also criticize the power private investors gain through controlling such a basic, vital good (Chong 2007:2). One of the main opponents of the privatization of water is Shiva Vandana. She sees water as a sacred that cannot be owned as a private property or sold. Water is no human invention, it cannot be bound. She has a clear opinion toward the IMF and the World Bank: “Denying poor people access to water by privatizing water distribution or polluting wells and rivers is also terrorism... [terrorists] are hiding behind the privatization conditionality’s of the IMF and World Bank” (Shiva 2002: xiv; 37). Water needs to be a collective right and a collective management like it is treated by indigenous communities, for example in India (Shiva 2002:12). Moreover, Shiva defines water crisis as an ecological crisis that cannot be solved through market mechanism, because higher prices won't lead to conversation (2002:15ff). The representatives of the 'water as common good' approach also argue that government-run water supply systems work as effective as private ones and can offer lower tariffs on top because they have access to cheaper forms of finance (Bakker 2010:2).

Alberto, Chong. Privatization for the public good?: Welfare Effects of Private Intervention in Latin America. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA. 2008. Print

Bakker, Karen. Privatizing Water. Governance Failure and the World's Urban Water Crisis. Cornell University Press: Ithaca and London. 2010. Print.

Swyngedouw, Erik. Dispossessing H²O: the contested terrain of water privatization. In: Heynen, Nik (ed.). Neoliberal Environments. False promises and unnatural consequences. Routledge: New York. 2007. Print. pp. 51-62.