ICIJ on Water

The Center for Public Integrity - The Water Barons

This web site is the result of a year-long investigation in 2003 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on the growth of three private water utility companies - Suez, Vivendi Environnement and Thames Water/RWE AG. The investigation was conducted amid fears that control over water resources could soon be taken over by a handful of monopolistic corporations. It concludes that the enormous expansion of these companies could not have been possible without the World Bank and other multilateral financial institutions. The ICIJ investigation focused on the activities of these companies in South Africa, Colombia, Indonesia, Philippines, Australia, France, the United States and Canada. The South African study claims there is a direct link between the policy of full cost recovery and disconnections and the 2000 cholera outbreak in Dolphin Coast, where water supply was privatised in 1988.

http://www.icij.org/water/