Thursday, July 24, 2003
Water, water, everywhere...
The Economist is carrying a great survey on water. They make a fairly good case for pricing water, despite my personal misgivings post Bechtel and Cochabamba. Among the issues tackled in the survey are dams, rain-water harvesting, replenishability of water, private-public partnerships and so on.
The critics' hostility to profit and the private sector is equally misconceived. Water delivery and treatment are highly capital-intensive businesses. As Gérard Mestrallet of Suez, the world's biggest water company, likes to say, “God provided the water, but not the pipes.” Wherever that capital investment comes from, somebody has to pay for it: if not users, then taxpayers or aid donors. For the people who now have no access to clean water, what matters is whether water comes out of the tap, not who delivers it.
The critics' hostility to profit and the private sector is equally misconceived. Water delivery and treatment are highly capital-intensive businesses. As Gérard Mestrallet of Suez, the world's biggest water company, likes to say, “God provided the water, but not the pipes.” Wherever that capital investment comes from, somebody has to pay for it: if not users, then taxpayers or aid donors. For the people who now have no access to clean water, what matters is whether water comes out of the tap, not who delivers it.
