Upside Down World - Not For Sale: El Salvador's Movement Against Water Privatization

"Who Wants Privatization?

Since the early 1990’s the international financial institutions (IFIs), like the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB), have encouraged the privatization of water systems throughout Latin America through 'Structural Adjustment' loans. The IFI’s require governments to open water management to private investment as a condition for receiving loan money, which is usually destined toward infrastructure repair or new construction.

The IDB stopped using the word 'privatization' after the Cochabomba, Bolivia disturbances in 2000. In that conflict over water privatization, tens of thousands marched until the local government annulled a water management concession with a subsidiary of the US-based Bechtel corporation. Today, the IDB prefers terms like 'concessions' and 'decentralization,' or 'private sector participation.' But critics say whatever the euphemism, the result is the same privatization.

The US-based consumer watchdog Public Citizen reports that the IDB and World Bank together administer about 133 different water and sewage-related projects, funded to the tune of $9.7 billion. The majority of these projects are in Africa and Latin America, while most of them include some type of 'hydro-sector reform.'"