by B. Ashok
What about privatising water? Should India move to do it? What tips the scales in its favour, and what doesn’t? In 2003, two editorials in Down To Earth tried to tackle such questions (see: "The true cost of water", Down To Earth, April 15, 2003 and "What about privatisation, then?", April 30, 2003). Many people wrote back to us on the issue. This is what some of them feel:
By Melissa Dayrit
An Introduction to Water and Sanitation
Statistics about lack of safe water and sanitation offer the most acute reflection of the failure of the modern world to distribute the rewards of new technologies. Over one billion people lack access to safe water and over two billion live without proper sanitation.
Water Carrier © WaterAid
Water-related diseases result in over five million deaths annually, of whom most are children. At the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, Governments were shamed into tough commitments but will their promises stumble over funding shortfalls, corporate meddling, and continuing wars?
