As clean safe free/affordable drinking water disappears more and more corporations are seeing it as an economic opportunity.  Water used to be kept flowing to a countries people because it was considered an “pubic trust” and was controlled by pubic and manicipal water systems, but know corporations are moving in in big ways. Whether it’s through opening a Coke production plant in India or Suez water in Latin America charging its customers astronomical amounts. The problem is still the same.  Water is not a commodity to be bought and sold, to be distributed unequally, or shipped somewhere else– it is everyones.  The washington Offices editorial about this subject sheds light on when poor people suffer the largest of the burden, “Essentially profit-making water services are separated from loss-making markets. Providing water in urban settings, and wealthy areas, is less costly than in rural areas or slums. So, companies thake the profitable sector, and leave the unprofitable sectors to the government to provide”.  While internaitional institutions allocte more and more water for businesses.  For instance, in poverty stricken South Africa in 2001 prepaid meters failed to provide clean safe water causing a cholera outbreak causing 100,000 to be sickand hundreds to die. The impact of the privatization of water has been devastating.

www.pcusa.org/washington/issuenet/africa-040311.htm