Water for Sale: How Business and the Market Can Resolve the World's Water Crisis.

• Author: Acs, Alex
• Position: FURTHER READING - Book review

WATER FOR SALE: HOW BUSINESS AND THE MARKET CAN RESOLVE THE WORLD'S WATER CRISIS

Fredrik Segerfeldt

(Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, 2005), 160 pages.

Segerfeldt's motivations for writing Water for Sale are clear. The author is concerned by the failure of many publically owned utilities to allocate water efficiently and to deliver a product that is both clean and affordable. Segerfeldt is bothered by recent opposition to fix this problem by privatizing public utilities. In Water for Sale, he aims to counter an information campaign launched by organizations that are committed to valuing water as a human right, and are unwilling to trust water management and delivery to the private sector.

Water for Sale is an unabashed defense of private sector involvement in water delivery. As such, it does clarify some general misconceptions about contracting to the private sector. Segerfeldt reminds the reader that water delivery, like any public service, is contractible. So even if one starts with the assumption that corporations are greedy and that the incentives of all water companies are to lower costs at every level of performance, government should still be able to write a contract for all measureable standards. For example, if government is concerned about issues like price, quality, accessibility or delivery to specific regions and populations, it can include such terms within the contract (indeed, they usually do). By law, the company is required to follow the contract. Whether or not the government has the capacity to enforce the contract is a different issue. If it does not, there is little reason to believe...