The Privatization of Water

The world’s largest water company, Suez, serves about 1 billion people worldwide—including 20 percent of China’s urban population—according to Arup’s guide to global water-industry data, the inDepth Water Yearbook.

Suez, based in France, is expanding in the United States and currently serves about 6 million people, including a 20-year, $1 billion contract in Nassau County, New York.

The largest system Suez owns in the United States is in New Jersey’s Bergen and Hudson counties across from Manhattan, serving about 1 million people. In 2000, Suez acquired the company, United Water, that had operated this system since 1869.

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If you don't like it, get your water from somewhere else

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Around the turn of the 20th century, many of the country’s water utilities were privately run. However, places like New York City started taking public control because of the companies’ chronic failure to provide adequate service, Grant explained. Water pressure was too low, hindering firefighting. Low-income communities were underserved.

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