Just like the air we breathe, water is an element necessary to the survival of mankind, animals and plants. Hence, July 27, 2010, access to drinking water was integrated into the Declaration of Human Rights by the General Assembly of the United Nations. Despite everything, water is constantly the prey of the economic interests of multinational corporations concerned with increasing their profits. This problem touches developing countries as well as rich, industrialized countries.
The principle is simple: each time a community tries to modify its water management, Veolia or Suez, the two most important water companies in the world, stick their beaks in. Together, they constitute an opaque cartel that, for example in France, supplies around 80% of the population. Result: a staggering increase of cost to the consumer, reduction in water quality, lack of openness often linked to a climate of corruption. Even if it is no longer about privatization, strictly speaking, but about public-private partnerships, the result is the same: multinationals defy public services.
Water Makes Money explains how multinational businesses function, taking control of the distribution of this vital need, thus creating a puzzling alchemy: they transform water into money. The analysis of this issue is supplemented by contributions from experts in the field, by several examples of cities or districts, German or French, in the grip of the domination of these firms who care little about providing quality service (poor neighborhoods cut off from drinking water, no running water...). But, as is the case in Paris, communities rebel and show that citizens' control of water is necessary and possible.
