Most of the world's top ten water corporations have been charged and even convicted of bribery, corruption and related offences.
Water is an essential public resource.
So it stands to reason that those responsible for managing it should be held to high standards of trust and accountability. While not all of the many charges brought against the Top Ten relate to their water service operations, they do tell us something about the corporations themselves and their thirst for profits. In Indonesia, Suez Lyonnaise and Thames Water have both been charged with tampering with water pricing. Lawyers representing local residents and contractors in Jakarta have called on the courts to revoke the companies' water management contracts and require them to pay compensation. In France, an executive of Suez Lyonnaise and the mayor of Grenoble were tried and convicted in 1995 over a water contract with the city.