Taking back control of cities worldwide: step one is reversing privatization
From sparkling water fountains to better waste services and lower drug prices, cities are showing the benefits of remunicipalisation
Guardian Cities is concluding with ‘The case for …”, a series of opinion pieces exploring options for radical urban change. Read our editor’s farewell here
In 2015, a strident editorial appeared in Global Water Intelligence, a trade magazine for the water industry, under the title: Exorcising the “R” word. “It would be a travesty,” the writer declared, to let “the ill-informed propaganda of a few NGOs” interfere with private sector involvement in the water business.
The unspeakable “R” word that had provoked such a defensive stance? Remunicipalisation: the taking back of privatised assets and services into public ownership at a local level.