Celebrate private investment on World Water Day

By Alex Singleton | 22 March 2005

Anti-liberal NGOs like War on Want and the World Development Movement are using World Water Day (today) to campaign against private investment in water infrastructure. The World Development Movement says that water privatization is: "making it less likely that clean water will ever get to the poorest people."

Unfortunately the World Development Movement is mistaken. As Global Growth's development economist, Paul Staines, says: "Practical and technological requirements for huge sanitation projects on a metropolis-wide scale require the resources of big enterprises to implement them, the private sector can not only provide the capability but also the capital required. 2 billion people thirst for clean water, Western antiglobalisation NGOs who arrogantly put their ideological interest ahead of the interests of the developing world are full of **it, and if they succeed in their campaign the fast growing cities of the developing world will be as well."

Private investment in water is expanding access to clean, running water. It contrasts strongly with nationalized water systems where politically-favoured groups receive below-cost water, starving off future investment so that unfavoured groups go without. Private investment offers the best plan for increasing access to water.