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A Win in the Water War

Stockton, Calif., residents have stopped one multinational company from taking over their water system, but other localities remain threatened

By Megan Tady

Bill Lokyo never expected to find himself embroiled in a six-year battle over water with a multinational corporation and city officials in Stockton, Calif. “We all thought this would only be a one-year fight,” Lokyo says. But Lokyo and the group Concerned Citizens Coalition of Stockton (CCOS) felt compelled to challenge a rushed deal that turned the city’s publicly owned… return to article

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    The City of Cherbourg and other municipalities in France had a long fight too. It was worth it !

    Meanwhile, the same companies are hard at work in Africa, etcetc ...

    France Posted by frog on Aug 1, 2007 at 8:56 AM

    It does appear that many private water companies are heavily in debt. According to the Sierra Club, RWE is $28 billion in debt and Suez/ONDEO is $29 billion in debt. These debts seem to have come after a flurry of M&A;activity in the late 1990s and beyond in which big outlays were made by large companies to buy out others in anticipation of an avalanche of big municiple water contracts which never materialized. Many communities with newly privatized drinking water systems struggle with high rates and bad service.

    Quickly increased water rates surely reflect corporate efforts to recoup funds used to buy out smaller water companies. Service and water quality also suffers when private water companies feel a financial squeeze on their bottom line. As of 2003, over 1,100 municipalities in the US privatized their drinking water systems.  After the water system of Chualar, CA was privatized by Monterey County in 2002 and turned over to Cal-Am Water Co., a RWE-Thames subsidiary, residents experienced a monthly rate hike from $21 monthly to $500 after the company applied to the Public Utilities Commision to charge the same water rates as in other California municipalities where it had taken over water service. Massive rate hikes on the mostly poor residents caused incredible hardship. The residents fought back and eventually won but went through great hardship in the meantime.  CalAm based its rate structure on the water usage habits of wealthier rate payers in places like Hidden Hills who water their lawns and fill their massive swimming pools. The Chualar community, which is 90% Hispanic, have different water needs and were angered by the company’s arrogance. The high rates may have been a ploy to impress company stockholders. CalAm is one of the biggest political campaign contributers to local California races and over $491,000 of the more than one million dollars in campaign contributions in the State of California between 2000 and 2005.

    United States Posted by cabdriverinchicago on Aug 14, 2007 at 10:18 PM

    Cutting corporate power is the sine qua non of democracy

    Philippines Posted by TomPaine21stC on Nov 15, 2007 at 2:14 AM
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