Stemming the Tide

When privatization of public services swept the developing world in the 1990s, it was part of a seemingly unstoppable tide of neoliberal reforms aimed at reducing the role of the state and reorienting economies toward market-led policymaking. Consequently, water privatization sparked a fierce debate over whether public services should be owned and managed by private corporations, and gave rise to a water justice movement that redefined water services as basic human rights. Stemming the Tide explores how the human right to water and sanitation is fulfilled in different contexts, whether neoliberal policies like privatization pose a threat to the right to water, and whether rights fulfillment leads to meaningful social change.