Case after case shows PPPs hand communities all the risk, while the multinationals pocket the profit. In one recent PPP scheme researched by Public Services International, the Chilean water company EMOS, was privatized last year to Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux. The deal lets Suez appoint the majority of the directors of the board despite holding less than half the shares. And once corporations get their hands on water, global trade deals will make privatization permanent. The latest round of talks for the General Agreement on Trade in Services hands corporations a powerful tool in their efforts to pry open the 'market' of public water services.
Globalization is nothing less than the privatization of the planet.
And the GATS could be a license to allow them to do it. Once we privatize water, there's no going back. The Blue Planet Project is an international effort to protect the world's fresh water from trade and privatization. The project brings together non-governmental organizations and trade unions from around the world including Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Mexico, Slovakia, Philippines, Greece, Canada, the United States, the UK, Germany, Sweden, Japan and France.