United States
| Victory in Felton, CA! |
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The recent history of water privatization in the United States is scarred by underachievement and failure. During the 1990s, corporations, many of them multi-billion dollar conglomerates based overseas, persuaded communities throughout the nation to transfer control over their water systems to the private sector. The companies promised to solve the communities funding shortages and to address technical and organizational challenges. But the corporations, mainly European multinationals RWE, Suez and Veolia, have failed. Their disasters include maintenance problems in Atlanta, sewage spills in Milwaukee, corruption in New Orleans and political meddling in Lexington.
But, like the people of Felton, whose story we tell here, residents and leaders are standing up in cities and towns across the land and fighting the specter of water privatization. Indeed, the corporate water bubble is bursting.
However, citizens are not just pushing back against privatization. They also are pushing for the creation of a federal trust fund that would guarantee a reliable stream of money for the much-needed repair and rejuvenation of our drinking and waste water systems, which every community and every generation need and deserve.
Read below for stories of what people like you are doing to retain and
strengthen local democratic control of their water resources.