The Evolution of Private Provision in Urban Drinking Water: New Geographies, Institutional Ambiguity and the Need for Political Economy

Abstract

Empirical research paints a dynamic picture of the evolution of private provision in urban drinking water. A second wave of privatisation is clustered in a key group of countries, distinguished by the rise of new domestic private and quasi-private providers. This is, however, taking place in the presence of a counter-dynamic of remunicipalisation. In response to the complexity in provision arrangements revealed, three case studies are used to illustrate how different power balance configurations in the state-society-capital complex inform particular institutional arrangements. In Germany, civil society pressure challenged private capital resulting in the reinstatement of municipal control in Berlin, but at high long-term costs. In Russia, disempowered civil society has watched as the ruling regime exploits the support of international public agencies and foreign investors, while carefully safeguarding the interests of domestic private capital. In China, different levels of the state have promoted quasi-state actors into global corporations, managing the entry of international capital in order to bolster domestic support for desired political reforms. Public responsibility, and equally the re-assertion of public control after a period of private provision, may not in itself secure net social benefit where the right of capital to profit is put before broader social considerations.

Moderating Role of Foreign Investor Characteristics on the relationship between Regulatory Factors of International Trade and Environmental Degradation in UAE

“…The earlier zones were set up and managed by government agencies. However, an increasing number of zones have been established and are operated by private corporations in recent years (Powell & Yurchenko, 2020).…”

Critical Reflections on Public Private Partnerships

“…In Chile also water utilities were transferred to private shareholders (Baer 2014). Concession and lease contracts were adopted in Spain, Portugal, Germany and other European countries (Gonzalez-Gomez et al, 2009;Teles, 2015;Powell and Yurchenko, 2020).…”

“…Kishimoto and Petitjean (2017) document 267 remunicipalisations in the water sector, 106 of which are in France, including in Paris, and 63 are in the USA. Water was taken into public hands in cities such as Barcelona (Planas 2017;Gonzalez-Gomez et al 2017) and Berlin (Powell and Yurchenko, 2020). These remunicipalisations of water services are in some cases part of a movement across other areas of public services (Kishimoto and Petitjean, 2017).…”

“…Domestic companies are playing a growing role in Chinese water PPPs with state-owned enterprises, owned by local governments representing the private sector in some PPP projects (Qian et al, 2019;Wu et al, 2016). Privatisation is also reported to be emerging in Russia and the Gulf states (Pierce, 2015;Powell and Yurchenko, 2020).…”

“…In 2017, a major water PPP contract in Rwanda was awarded to a Gulf company, Metito (see below). Chinese domestic state-backed firms, such as Beijing Capital Company (BCC) and Beijing Enterprises Water Limited (BEWG), have witnessed spectacular growth in their revenues and assets under management (Powell and Yurchenko, 2020). BEWG now has concession contracts in Portugal (as Be Water), Malaysia and Singapore.…”