San Antonio Business Daily

What good can come from water privatization?

I have been researching water privatization and I have found enough reasons to why privatization is a terrible idea (high costs, sub-par water conditions and lack of say from the community) but to be completely unbiased in understanding the situation I need some reasons of how privatization can possibly be positive for a community. Thanks for the answers!

Public Comments

1. Profits for those who sell it. i.e. the Biz Moguls.
2. Privatization introduces the profit incentive to provide outstanding quality and service. This means that if the company wants to make a profit they have to provide what you want. A citizen can sue a company, for harm, try that with a municipality. Private property is always more well cared for than anything in the public arena, Compare a public park (a money hole) to a private golf course. You won't find trash overflowing at the golf course, and why? The golf course has an amazing amount of labor that goes into maintaining it, and it still functions as a business, producing a profit for the owners, all paid for by only the people who use it.
3. Currently, water is a very abundant resource so it is relatively cheap to produce and sell. However, water is expected to be a scarce resource in the future. We need water, so we will have to pay whatever the market can bare in the future. Privatization vs. Monopoly. Privatization leads to the most efficient allocation of resources for the cheapest amount of money. A monopoly, allows for more profits to be made so lead to higher prices. Just imagine if there was only one gas station in America. Gas is Scarce while water is abundant. It is estimated that by the year 2050, water will be a scarce resource. Another example is Cable Companies. In my area, there is a monopoly on cable. I pay way to much, but have no other choice, maybe satelite- but I would not get local channels. So privatization leads to competition. Competition leads to lower prices and better service because companies compete to offer you the best service.