The myth of ‘healthy’ competition in the water sector: The case of small scale water providers

Community water system privatization and the water access crisis

“…Similarly, Ahlers, Schwartz, and Perez Guida (2013) found that in Mozambique, even small independent service providers did not compete with one another in ways that benefitted them or their customers.…”

Dangerous assemblages: Salts, trihalomethanes and endocrine disruptors in the water palimpsest of the Llobregat River, Catalonia

“…While acknowledging the historically-determined character of the concept of "water quality", our use of it throughout the paper refers to general human and ecological standards such as the "good chemical status" and "good ecological status" of the EU Water Framework Directive, applying both to humans and ecosystems (European Commission, 2016). Water quality standards and their implementation have been of course subject of critical studies, especially in the development literature, regarding water perceptions and the politics on water management and health (Ahlers et al, 2013;Bakker et al, 2008;Kotsila, 2017).…”

Social Drivers of Water Utility Privatization in the United States: An Examination of the Presence of Variegated Neoliberal Strategies in the Water Utility Sector

“…In many instances, international economic pressure to transfer the ownership and operation of government assets into the hands of private entities manifested itself in the International Monetary Fund's or World Bank's mandated privatization of the water and sewage utility systems of large cities in nations of the Global South and eastern Europe (Bakker ; Barlow ; Conca ; Hall and Lobina ; Hall et al ; Jaffee and Newman ). This trend of water utility privatization was deeply contested in most instances and, perhaps as a result of this contestation, was granted a significant amount of attention by the academic community (Ahlers, Schwartz, and Perez Guida ; Barlow ; Boelens et al ; Castro ; Conca ; Jaffee and Newman ; Tan ; Torres ).…”

“…Much of the scholarship concerning water utility privatization has noted the failure of private water service providers to achieve the goals that proponents of privatization initially cited as the purpose of such projects. For example, expansion of water provisions to financially impoverished areas and populations in a manner that was safer and more efficient than techniques employed by the public sector was never achieved and rarely even attempted (Ahlers et al ; Bakker ; Barlow ; Castro ; Hall et al ; Tan ). Additionally, research concerning water utility privatization has found that acts of enclosure are typically followed by drastic increases in the cost of services, and notes that these expansive price hikes are necessary if the firms involved wish to maintain levels of profit deemed reasonable (Barlow ; Castro ; Food and Water Watch ; Hall et al ).…”