More than 100 environmental, social and indigenous organizations protested Monday in the Chilean capital to demand that the state regain control over the management of water, which was privatized by the dictatorship in 1981. According to the organizers, one of whom was former student leader Camila Vallejo, who plans to   Read More ...

The water markets of Marathwada are booming. In the town of Jalna alone, tanker owners transact between Rs.6 million and Rs.7.5 million in water sales each day. Thirst is Marathwada’s greatest crop this season. Forget sugarcane. Thirst, human and industrial, eclipses anything else. Those harvesting it reap tens of millions   Read More ...

An international standard on water reduction has been launched in an effort to order to encourage businesses to use water more sustainably. The UK’s Carbon Trust, which developed the scheme, said many business leaders did not see the issue as a priority. The Water Standard will require firms to measure   Read More ...

A disturbing trend in the water sector is accelerating worldwide. The new “water barons” — the Wall Street banks and elitist multibillionaires — are buying up water all over the world at unprecedented pace. Familiar mega-banks and investing powerhouses such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, UBS, Deutsche Bank,   Read More ...

Opposition grows to Agbar’s home rule. A heated debate is raging over the legality of a recent concession award to Spanish water services company Agbar. The outcome could have major repurcussions for the company’s footprint in its home city. The recent decision by the metropolitan area of Barcelona (AMB) to   Read More ...

Brussels – The European Commission is deliberately promoting privatization of water services as one of the conditions being imposed as part of bailouts, it acknowledged in a letter to civil society groups on 26 September 2012.[1] EU Commissioner Olli Rehn’s directorate was responding to questions posed in an open letter   Read More ...

EU leaders are under fire for pressuring troubled eurozone governments to sell public water utilities as part of their bailout deals, with environmentalists and rights activists saying that privatisation will only feed public anger. Criticism of the bailout conditions set for Greece and Portugal by the European Commission, European Central   Read More ...

Payments for ecosystem services look like the prelude to the greatest privatisation since enclosure. The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying “This is mine”, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes,   Read More ...