H2O up for sale -the privatisation of a human necessity

Water - the origin of life. Like most important things in life, we value them most when we no longer have them- water is such a thing.

We need just turn on the faucet and drinking water comes flowing out of the tap. That we should not take this for granted is shown to us not only by circumstances in the third world. 
 

Mrs Dewsnapp lives in London on the fifth floor. When she gets up in the morning the first thing she does is to check if water is coming out of her tap. If not, a stressful day begins. Perhaps her neighbours on the 3rd floor have running water... or maybe on the 2nd?

The water utilities in England were privatised in 1989. Repairing the water pipes in London is extremely expensive and does not bring any profit.  As a result, 30 - 60 percent of London's drinking water is leaking into the underground.  As the weakening Victorian water pipes can no longer hold the increasing pressure, Thames Water London, which is owned by the German company RWE, announced last year that they would lower the pressure yet another bar. 

International Companies like France's Suez and Veolia and the German's RWE are buying up water utilities all over the world causing the global money stream around the world to increase. Why do big companies do this? To cause a rise in profits and increase their market value in the stock exchange. Companies invest money to increase future profit.

Does this help to bring consumer's better water quality and better service for reasonable prices?

By observing what they have experienced in England, the answer is "no". Thames Water is the biggest water polluter in England. 50 to 60 times a year unsettled wastewater is let out into the river because it is cheaper than making the necessary improvements to the sewage treatment plants. Since several years, scientists have been researching what effects the higher sewage content has had on the rivers and lakes in England. What they have found are female mutations in male fish. 

So much of the river is actually sewage which contains contaminates from people.  Substances such as hormones, psycho-pharmaceuticals, paramagnetic agents etc. can only be filtered out in the purification process for drinking water by micro filtration, but this method is far to expensive for profit oriented Companies. What effect does this have on the human reproduction ability? 

As more and more communities sink further into dept, more and more cities sell their water utilities to privately owned companies. 
 

The film shows the effects of water privatization in England over the last 15 years and which kinds of consequences we can already see in many different German cities. For example in the capital city of Berlin Thames Water, RWE and Veolia have bought 49,9% of the water utilities. In accordance to this purchase, the city of Berlin guarantied them the total power of disposal, and a minimum profit. If this is not met, the Berlin senate is liable for damage.  The city, already deep in dept, had to forfeit their part of the profit from the Berlin Water Works and give it back to the part time owner to whom it was guarantied.

Sounds like a good crime story, right? The results are the same everywhere:

Job cuts, less investments into maintaining a better condition of the water pipes, more water leakage.  The quality of water is dependent on risk management.  How much does it cost to maintain the water at this level, how long can we hold off on repairs?

This helps to keep profits for private companies high, but what about the water quality?

Why does a company like the German RWE buy water works like Thames Water in London and American Water? For good profit!  Who is really paying for it?

The good news is that resistance is growing.