TFTT Report

In a recent radio interview, Food & Water Watch campaign director Mary Grant continued to get basic facts wrong about the private water industry in the United States. As we’ve pointed out before, critics routinely use false and deceptive claims to actively mislead the public on private water.

Here are five key points to keep in mind when listening to the interview:

WATER IS A PUBLIC GOOD

Critics like to confuse the idea of privatizing a water system with privatizing a water supply. Obviously, this is a very fundamental and important concept – yet critics routinely get it wrong.

Just like public utilities, the private water industry is in the water system business, ensuring that the pipes, treatment facilities, pumps, mains, and other infrastructure provide safe, clean drinking water to customers.

Despite critics’ efforts to confuse the issue, privatization of a water system simply does not privatize the water supply. Water is and remains a public good under every model of water treatment and delivery – for both public and private systems.

WATER RATES ARE ALWAYS SET BY A PUBLIC AUTHORITY

Critics often claim or imply that private water companies set their own rates with no oversight. As the radio station states,

“Once in control of a vital public resource, corporations often use their monopoly to raise the cost of drinking water, without public accountability.”

This is a perspective often repeated by FWW.

In reality, no matter whether it is a municipal government or private water company running a water system via a public-private partnership or as a regulated private utility, rates are always set and approved by a public authority – either an elected municipal board or a public utility commission. Private water operators cannot and do not set their own rates.

FOOD & WATER WATCH’S SOLUTIONS ARE NARROW AND UNREALISTIC

In this interview and previously, Food & Water Watch has consistently called for increased federal investment in water infrastructure. While everyone can agree that investment in our water infrastructure is urgently needed, the idea that the federal government alone is going to generate $1 trillion in new revenue to fill the water infrastructure funding gap over the next 25 years is completely unrealistic.

The private water industry offers real solutions with broad, bipartisan support to communities facing urgent water infrastructure and operation needs. The U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities, the Brookings Institute, academics across the country, and even the President of the United States agree that private water companies provide proven and important options for municipalities.

TAP WATER INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BOTTLED WATER

At the end of the interview, Grant tries to link a decline in investment in water infrastructure to bottled water:

“There is this public perception that our tap water is unsafe, so people don’t want to invest in it. And then who can afford bottled water? Maude Barlow talks about a two-tier water system; you have people who can afford this bottled water and you have people who are stuck with tap water. And if you’re not having people who can afford bottled water invest in our tap water system, where does that leave our tap water system?”

This argument is completely off point. Americans are fortunate to have some of the highest quality tap water in the world and do not have to rely on bottled water. The United States faces urgent water infrastructure needs, but nobody is calling for municipalities to give up on investing in tap water infrastructure. Drinking water and wastewater systems are vital for everyday life, and quite simply can’t be replaced by bottled water.

The three biggest private water companies in the U.S. alone spend $1.5 billion annually to improve community tap water systems across the country. Private water companies provide the access to capital, expertise, and experience municipalities need to build reliable, efficient tap water systems.

Conflating the water infrastructure crisis with bottled water is simply not logical or helpful. To solve our water infrastructure challenges, municipalities need proven solutions, not misleading scare tactics.

PRIVATE WATER COMPANIES SUPPORT WATER AFFORDABILITY PROGRAMS

Grant cites Food & Water Watch’s work to support water affordability programs, calling them

“a solution … to address the issue of increasing water rates to ensure everyone has access to safe and affordable water service.”

Water is a vital resource, and urgent reinvestment needs have led to higher water rates for both public and private water systems across the country. Private water companies support water affordability programs to ensure access to water in their service areas. These programs include both one-time emergency grants and discount payment programs for low-income households.