Water supply privatization was emblematic of the neoliberal turn in development policy in the 1990s. Proponents argued that the private sector could provide better services at lower costs than governments; opponents questioned the risks involved in delegating control over a life-sustaining resource to for-profit companies. Private-sector activity was most concentrated—and contested—in large cities in developing countries, where the widespread lack of access to networked water supplies was characterized as a global crisis.

In Privatizing Water, Karen Bakker focuses on three questions: Why did privatization emerge as a preferred alternative for managing urban water supply? Can privatization fulfill its proponents' expectations, particularly with respect to water supply to the urban poor? And, given the apparent shortcomings of both privatization and conventional approaches to government provision, what are the alternatives?

In answering these questions, Bakker engages with broader debates over the role of the private sector in development, the role of urban communities in the provision of "public" services, and the governance of public goods. She introduces the concept of "governance failure" as a means of exploring the limitations facing both private companies and governments. Critically examining a range of issues—including the transnational struggle over the human right to water, the "commons" as a water-supply-management strategy, and the environmental dimensions of water privatization—Privatizing Water is a balanced exploration of a critical issue that affects billions of people around the world.

KAREN BAKKER is Associate Professor and Director, Program on Water Governance, University of British Columbia, Canada. 

List of Figures and Tables
Preface
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Defining ‘Privatization’: A Note on Terminology
Introduction: Privatization and the Urban Water Crisis

Part I. Development, Urbanization, and the Governance of Thirst

1. Governance Failure: Reframing the Urban Water Supply Crisis
2. Material Emblems of Citizenship: Creating Public Water
3. Watering the Thirsty Poor: The Water Privatization Debate
4. Citizens without a City: The Techno-Politics of Urban Water Governance

Part II. Beyond Privatization: Debating Alternatives

1. Protesting Privatization: Transnational Struggles over the Human Right to Water
2. Commons versus Commodities: The Ambiguous Merits
3. Politics and Biopolitics: Debating Ecological Governance

Conclusion: Beyond Privatization
Notes
References
Index

— Michael Watts, Class of 1963 Professor of Geography and Development Studies at the University of California, Berkeley

— Rutgerd Boelens, Wageningen University, The Netherlands.