Clearing the Water The real story behind activist groups’ favorite case studies.

Groups like Food & Water Watch – as well as their national and international allies, like Corporate Accountability International, In the Public Interest and Public Services International Research Unit – regularly distort the private water experience in just a handful of cities to make their ideological case against private water. Over and over again, critics point to these seven cities to argue that private water doesn’t work.

But their favorite “case studies” contain more fiction than fact. Activist groups rely on partial timelines, made-up facts and biased reports to paint a purposefully misleading picture of what happened during private operation – and more importantly, what’s happened since.