The Remunicipalisation of Water Services in Paris, France - futurepolicy.org:
"On 24 November 2008, against exponentially rising water prices, a severe lack of transparency, and poor accountability, the City Council of Paris decided not to renew its municipal water supply contracts with the private companies Veolia and Suez (two of the French powerhouses in global water services), instead remunicipalising water to be under public control. The production and supply of Paris’ water was unified under the public entity Eau de Paris, which assumed operations of the whole system from 2010 onwards. Despite the major financial, labour and logistical challenges that the city faced, the transition was managed on time with no difference in terms of service to the end user and impressive financial savings for the people of Paris, and surplus profits have been reinvested for the further development of the city’s water infrastructure. This policy has shown that remunicipalisation of water services can be successful on a grand scale."
1 comment:
Good for Paris.
Chicago's deals (Skyway, parking meters) tend to be on the order of 75-99 years. If folks are still driving cars in (75+2008) 2083 and if the Skyway hasn't fallen apart by (99+2004) 2103, maybe Chicago will have an opportunity to reclaim some of its infrastructure.... Of course Chicago's deals tend to smell far more of corruption than anything else.
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