Dutch drinking water is despite the absence of the use of chlorine the best. According to Science. Look also here. And here is Wikipedia. The secret? Good maintenance (according De Volkskrant of today, no link). And state of the art purification (without chlorine). Also, Dutch water companies do not have to pay dividends. They are government owned companies at arms length of the bureaucrats. They do not have to pay dividends and have, therewith, the money as well as the long term orientation to care about their product. This is a conscious choice. According to Wikipedia (didn’t know this before preparing this blog, thank you mister Pronk): ‘In 2004 the Netherlands passed a law which prevents any privately owned company from providing drinking water services to the public‘.…Real-World Economics Review Blog
Can water be non-neoliberal? The Dutch case
Merijn Knibbe
Just dont turn it into an ersatz Job Guaranty.... ie seek to maintain efficiency...
ReplyDeleteI often ask my single-payer advocate friends if they believe the single-payer/private provider model should also be applied to water? The cognitive dissonance is strong.
ReplyDeletePublic water is proven to work. Public schools are proven. Public roads are proven. Our public lands and public parks are very popular. In general, publicly owned and operated routine public services & infrastructure are proven to work.
Even if buying into the propaganda is the norm it shouldn't be all that hard to escape the idea that being exploited has advantages no in fact it is superior to not being exploited(!?) The difference between paying people for doing work and just paying them (just because you can!) shouldn't be all that hard to figure out either - all by yourself.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the nepotism which is ALWAYS present with this type of arrangements?
ReplyDeleteFlint wasnt "privatised"...
Flint was run by an unelected "emergency" manager who had dictatorial powers.
ReplyDelete