Why Anytown, USA, Privatizes Its Water System

[marmar]

Why Anytown, USA, Privatizes Its Water System

Thursday, 31 October 2013 09:48
By Ellen Dannin, Truthout | Report


In August 2013, Allentown, Pennsylvania, rented its water and waste systems for 50 years because it did not have enough money to pay the pensions owed to its employees or to maintain its water system.

Allentown is not alone in turning to infrastructure privatization to deal with cash-flow problems. Indeed, Allentown is Anytown, USA, as cities, counties and states across the country privatize basic infrastructure built and paid for by prior generations. However, water is not just another type of infrastructure to be sold to the highest bidder. As NASA scientists know, water is life.

The Evolution of Building Big Things

For centuries, groups in the United States have funded and built big infrastructure. Consider barn raising. Neighbors got together, and by the end of the day, there was a new barn. Over time, everyone participated, and everyone who needed a barn got a barn.

As more complex and expensive infrastructure was needed, state, local and federal governments raised funds to pay workers and buy materials to build canals, roads, railroads and water and sewage systems. Those funds came from the equivalent of passing the hat through one-time assessments or through the regular payment of taxes. For decades, federal and state fuel taxes have paid so many cents per gallon of gasoline to fund the building and maintenance of roads. The fuel tax has provided a clear, easy-to-understand link between funding source and the end product - good highways. .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/19684-why-anytown-usa-privatizes-its-water-system

[xchrom]

1. Du rec

[madrchsod]

2. my city of 20,000 has a new sewage treatment plant and water distribution system

both are publically owned and staffed with union labor. the sewage plant is good for another 25+yrs and the water system is meets all the state a federal laws. the funding came from taxes and federal funds.

the city several miles from where i live privatised their water distribution system and the people still ain`t happy. i guess that profit margin kind`a pisses them off

[truedelphi]

3. Water is the number one resource we will see being privatized over the next decade.

And often it is local water board members making the decisions. These boards are staffed by people meeting special criteria (in my neighborhood, you have to be a home owner, I believe, to run for the office.)

[longship]

4. I have privatized water and sewer.

It's pretty damned good. I have two artesian wells on the property, one still connected to the pump and pressure tank in the basement. My sewer is an ancient septic tank and septic field. It works, but needs maintenance every few years.

My water is damned good. Morning coffee is tasty. As long as I have electricity I have running water in my plumbing. But when electricity fails, the artesian well has natural pressure which I can tap for flushing and bathing, etc.

Privatized water is good as long as one has the funds to keep it in working order.

That's the way things are in rural areas.

[moriah]

5. I lived with a hand-pump well....

.... that was rigged with a tripod platform over it, a windshield wiper motor to operate the hand pump, and wired to a solar cell. It pumped water into two holding tanks in the attic for water pressure, and then we had a traditional hot water heater. The guy who set up this system had rigged it to sense when the water in the holding tanks was low to start pumping, and stop when they were full.

So we had water even when we lost power for two weeks.