Privatising other people’s water: the contradictory policies of Netherlands, Norway and Sweden

Hall, David (2004) Privatising other people’s water: the contradictory policies of Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. Discussion Paper. PSIRU, London, UK.

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Abstract

The Nordic countries, including Norway and Sweden, are famous for their strong welfare state and public services. Stockholm’s public sector water company hosts the world’s leading annual conference of water, in a week that celebrates its achievement of cleaning the waters of Stockholm harbour. The Netherlands is equally famous for its water services, managed and financed through a network of public authorities, banks and managements. In all three countries, not surprisingly, there has been almost universal resistance to the idea of allowing private water companies to run this public service – in the Netherlands, a proposed law to make private sector water supply illegal has received backing from nearly all parties.

Yet in all three countries, the agencies responsible for aid to developing countries are financing and supporting programmes that are promoting water privatization in developing countries. This paper presents the details of these aid policies, and discusses the problems raised by the policies themselves and the contradictions with their domestic water supply policies.

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