Now we know what we always suspected: privatised water
companies care more about profits than they do about conserving water.
There we are as individual householders doing our best to
save hundreds of litres of water: my three water butts hold just over 200
litres each. At the same time the water companies are losing 3.4 billion litres
a day, about a quarter of all water supplied. Southern Water, which covers the
area where I live, is the worst sinner. It missed its latest leakage target by
16% and will now be allowed to INCREASE leakage by 6% by 2015.
For more information see http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/07/water-companies-cut-leaks-2015-drought
I can’t think of a better argument for taking our water
supply back into public ownership – or even collective ownership in a social enterprise
cooperative.
You are right Hazel. There is no compelling economic rationale for privately owned monopolies like water companies other than to rip people off. What's more, they carry all the disincentives of the old top down nationalised bureaucracies with none of the advantages of a competitive market system either.
ReplyDeleteHowever, as we don't want to go back to a the old, failed centralist state monopolies, the best model is community ownership as social enterprises.
Howard