Will the water war takes place in California ?

Can you imagine having your water billed by a firm like Barclays or Chanel limited? Alright, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch but private organisations are more and more investing in freshwater infrastructures, pretending that this will help the under-performing public sector (Hall, Lobina and de la Motte, 2007).

Today I want to talk about the battle PUBLIC vs PRIVATE. I will start by asking you something: Would you agree with a monopoly annexation of your tap water? Debra Anderson said NO! Debra Anderson, officially works in a real estate agency in her hometown of McCloud, California. In reality, Debra lets her husband take care of business, and devoted her time and energy to fight against the Nestlé group.

(Hall , Lobina and de la Motte, 2007)

 According to the graph below, it seems that private-sector is widely facing strong public opposition. Privatisation is extensively unpopular mainly because of the feeling that it is profoundly unfair, both in conception and execution. (Birdsall and Nellis, 2002).

One day in 2003, "Nestle had obtained the right to manage water in the city with unlimited freedom. No impact study was made, Nestle get an exclusive hundred years contract, and the right to pump - including the right to raze the old wood factory in the city ” (Debra Anderson). In exchange, Nestlé assured to create 240 jobs, and pay various taxes and fees. In fact, the region is considered as a deprived area (us.gov, 2014).

With some friends and colleagues, she created an association, the McCloud Watershed Council. The Watershed Council brings together citizens, who, in normal times, are completely opposed- including Conservative Republicans, liberal Democrats and environmentalists.

Activists argued thats water is not a commodity, it is an essential element for life, which must remain in the public domain. This is in contradiction to what Nestle’s CEO publicly claimed “water should be privatized, and it is not a human right”. 

In this context can we expect Private-Public water wars in the next decades?