http://www.democracyctr.org/waterwar/
the above links to a series of pieces on the longer-term problems raised by the privatization of water supplies in bolivia at the behest of the world bank. the arguments were, of course, elements of the neoliberal mantra--private comapnies would be more efficient, in that little world--fact is that there had been minimal privatization of basic onfrastructure since these infrastructures were developed during the 19th-early 20th centuries. the logic behind this move is strange: it requires a pretty thoroughgoing historical myopia to consider this rational, frankly--the term efficiency functions in an interesting manner in this context: structural adjustment usually functions to make states more efficient in servicing debt to the imf/world bank/bank of the americas.
the contexts within which this abstract notion of efficiency gets put forward are often very complicated--the film "life and debt" is a good introduction--it focusses on the effects of structural adjustment policies on jamaica, and particularly on the jamaican dairy industry. in it, you get a good general idea of the relation of privatization to exploitation of local economies by transnationals which have the 9seemingly insurmountable) advantage of economies of scale. the result of this is a marked increase in dependency on international economic flows, a marked increased in social dislocation, the destruction of autonomous types of production and all the attending political consequences of such destruction. the film exploits the advantages of a case study approach--you get an outline of factors that are at least mappable onto parallel stituations in other southern hemiphere areas.
the effects of transferring control of water supply to a bechtel subsidiary were as they have been across south america when this particular "efficiency" has been applied: rising prices, erratic supply, decreasing quality. these effect entire cities, and obviously the poor disproportionately. in a country already struggling--to say the least--such "efficiencies" are little more than a sick joke.
you have similar situations that have unfolded in chile in particular--the water supply of santiago was transferred to suez lyonnaise des eaux and the same shit quickly hit the fan. neoliberalism has been failing in secot after sector, country after country fundamentally because the whole ideology is predicated on a wholesale ignorance of the history of actually existing capitalism (not the econ 101 fiction about capitalism)--it assumes that the social conditions around markets are incidental and that markets are therefore an abstract entity that remain identical to themelves regardles of the context. that is absurd.
nationalization may not be an optimal response, but it IS a logical one. the evaluation of nationalization in the context of bolivia (but in general as well, as a strategy directed against neoliberalism on the part of areas adversely effected (to say the least)) will have to wait until something actually happens.
i expect that neoliberal ideology will soon be understood as a surreal response to the collapse of the coldwar period, a symptom of irrational exuberance on the part of the then-dominant economic elite that had a fairly short life becuase once it moved from the lingua franca of world bank/imf meeting rooms to an actual policiy, the consequences of it were simply unacceptable.
of course, you wont know any of this from american television.
btw: this links to a good radio documentary produced in canada about privatization of water.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/features/water/