When privatisation goes wrong

Pablo of The Other India documents one case of water privatization, and Ennis of Sepia Mutiny tells the story of Indian workers with private military contractors in Iraq.

I put my thoughts over at The Other India blog.

I am often frustrated when opponents of privatisation jump from describing the bad ground situation caused by the daft contracts the govt enters into, to lofty statements about how water is an essential good and no private entity should own it. If anything, it seems to me that because water is so essential, we must try to create an efficient market where the prices reflect the real cost of producing water, which thereby ensures that there exist proper incentives for supplying it and disincentives for misuse.