Friends of the Earth: Press Release: Dirty Water

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Dirty Water

11 Dec 2001

Press Release
Embargo: 00:01hrs Tuesday 11th December 2001
DIRTY WATER!

The Shameful Record of the Giant Water Companies
These companies are not fit to be given control of the world's water. Water privatisation by Western companies in the developing world has so far benefited only the companies' shareholders, leaving people and the environment high and dry. Handing water services over to the private sector has left local people with a decline in service coupled with prices so high they can no longer afford water [2].

Friends of the Earth Corporates Campaigner Hannah Griffiths said:
    “Why on earth are water companies being rewarded for their bad behaviour with more contracts as water privatisation runs rampant around the world? The water companies we expose in our report today should not be selling water to communities - unless the corporate sector is democratically accountable to citizens and the rights of people and environmental protection are put before profits. Water is not a commodity to be traded on the stock exchange.”

Notes
1.    “Dirty Water: The environmental and social records of four multinational water companies”. The environmental and social records of multinational water companies. Report available athttp://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/dirty_water.pdf or from FOE Press Office
2.    Stealing Our Water, Friends of the Earth November 2001. Available athttp://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/gats_stealing_water.pdf

Contact details:

Friends of the Earth
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LONDON
N1 7JQ

Tel: 020 7490 1555
Fax: 020 7490 0881
Web: www.foe.co.uk/feedback.html

Media team