President Donald Trump’s proposal for public-private infrastructure funding will indeed lead to “taxpayer-funded profits for corporations with cost offloaded onto consumers,” the concern expressed by Democrats.
But such profit-taking doesn’t describe the most profound consequence of such partnerships: their effect on a precious resource which is currently already severely damaged by failure of oversight on a global level — water. As The New York Times June 16 piece on Trump’s plan puts it: “Government alone has the incentive to upgrade shoddy wastewater treatment and supply systems for drinking water. Absent public guarantees for profits, private companies have no inducement to bring such works into creation.”
The devastating impact of water privatization is evident in Pittsburgh, where people are facing elevated lead levels in their water after corrosion-control chemicals were changed without authorization during a “delegated management” contract that put Veolia — one of the world’s largest water privatizing corporations — in charge of the water and sewer authority.
Scarcity of clean water is a social justice issue. In Bayonne, New Jersey, rates have skyrocketed under the under a “public-private partnership” with Suez — another global water privatizer. Unable to pay high water bills, hundreds of families have had liens placed on their homes, which can lead to foreclosure.
Obviously, these social concerns are only one part of the larger global crisis of water management. At the recent United Nations Ocean Conference this June, major problems that currently affect our oceans, and therefore the largest portions of this planet, were identified. These include but are not limited to acidification, plastic pollution and other forms of pollution.
What we need is political will to adequately fund public systems, not a handout to private corporations with questionable track records and motives.
Renna Whittredge Pye
Northampton