AlterNet: The Corporate Control of Water Takes an Unexpected Twist

[marmar]

The Corporate Control of Water Takes an Unexpected Twist

By Jon Keesecker, AlterNet. Posted September 9, 2008.

In one U.S. city, a mayor is putting the city's water systems up for sale in exchange for money for eduction.



During an otherwise unexceptional State of the City address in February 2008, Mayor Donald Plusquellic put before the residents of Akron, Ohio, a proposal to sell the city's sewer system. The still-nascent plan, news even to some in the mayor's administration, involved handing over the city's system to a private company in return to for a roughly $200 million fee.

In the United States, about 85 percent of people on community water systems get their water from a publicly owned utility. But in recent years, as federal funding for water infrastructure has fallen, corporations have tried to buy up or privately manage more and more municipal water systems. And the result for communities has been higher rates and lower services.

However, in the case of Akron, things are shaping up a little differently. The purpose of the transfer, the mayor explained, is not so much to improve system operations -- the finances of the utility are in relatively good standing -- but rather to finance a scholarship program for Akron youth, modeled after a program in Kalamazoo, Mich. The Kalamazoo program, unveiled in 2005, was funded not by the sale of a city asset but by anonymous, private donors.

In the weeks following the speech, Plusquellic defended his proposal in radio, television and newspaper interviews. Despite blanket enthusiasm around the goal of funding higher education, the response of Akron residents to privatizing the water system ranged from apprehension to outright skepticism. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/water/97993/the_corporate_control_of_water_takes_an_unexpected_twist/

[54anickel]

1. Would that be lipstick on a pig? Sounds stupid or crooked to me. For some reason it reminds me

of Kucinich's days in Cleveland.