Abstract
During the past fifteen to twenty years, problems with the provision of drinking water and sanitation services around the world have been addressed by attempts to recast clean water as an essentially economic, rather than public, good. Within this conceptual framework, the private sector has been perceived as a provider of capital and efficient, affordable service. The effort to privatize water and sanitation services has had successes and failures, but as currently structured cannot be accepted as the most appropriate response in many cases, given its overriding emphasis on profit and its inability to account for water as anything other than a commodity. If these services are incorporate the full range of social, economic and environmental values necessary to sustain water resources over time, public and governmental involvement in providing stakeholder input and setting management policy remain essential to the process.
Recommended Citation
Wade, Jeffry S.
(2008)
"Privatization and the Future of Water Services,"
Florida Journal of International Law: Vol. 20:
Iss.
4, Article 7.
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/fjil/vol20/iss4/7