Freshwater as a Necessity: Government Support & Health Benefits.

Freshwater should be treated as a resource that is provided by the government at relatively free or low prices. Global population continues to increase, leading to high demand for water. Canada is an untapped market for profits. Freshwater should be treated as a resource that is provided by the government at relatively free or low prices. It will lead to a reduction of health hazards from industrial pollution and factory farm inputs. The Canada top cities contribute to half of the country output but only collect 6% of the tax dollars; hence they are open to private sector claims that lead to manipulation (Bates, 2017). In terms of water consumption, Canada is the second-largest in the world. Despite that water is a vital resource, its prices have been kept relatively low while its waste is high. It encourages water waste management because water prices are low with direct and indirect subsidies. This could be reduced by exposing water to privatization that involves the transition from country owned and operated water system to a system where water is treated as a tradable commodity, which is subject to private property rights. Canada has adopted this mechanism to protect its water resources.

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The transition by privatization, it exposes water to markets forces, which will encourage proper management and efficient prices (Bates, 2017). Water privatization will contribute to new costs for water that will reach an equilibrium between demand and supply. The water conservation will become more crucial and will be used less wastage due to market-induced prices.

In Canada, inadequate funding since the 1990s has forced municipalities and cities to turn to the private sector (Bates, 2017). Privatizing water involves transferring from management and control of water supply networks to the management of Private Corporation. It also occurs through a public-private partnership to protect the waste of water resources. In Canada, many community people require expensive infrastructure for sanitation networks, water distillation systems, and pipe installation. The main goal for water privatization is to maximize profit in municipalities and cities by creating proper, efficient well-run system because it is a cost-effective model. The federal government of Canada that deals with districts estimates the Canadian water and wastewater infrastructure deficit of 33 billion dollars (Bates, 2017). The purpose of this paper is to analyze the water privatization in Canada municipalities and cities.

The significance of water privatization in Canada is it reduces wastewater and maximizes water profits from private water corporation acting to manage water systems. The privatization of water supply networks in Canada is accompanied by economic principles of the water system, which focuses on profit-making and profit maximization (Zafra-Gomez, Lopez-Hernandez, Plata-Diaz& Garrido-Rodriguez, 2106). First Nations in Canada municipalities and cities require an upgraded water system in areas, such as water and sanitation, which influences privatization of water to reap more profits. Many private and the municipal owned water system in Canada municipalities and cities adopt a economical approach to water pricing to reduce the notion by people that they can only pay what they afford.

In Canada, water privatization has led to water conservation. In Canada, 50% of municipalities have government-run water supply system (Zafra-Gomez et al., 2106). Water privatization can have led to the availability of clean and safe water in towns and cities in Canada. The communities enjoy proper and efficient sanitation. The federal Canada municipalities enjoy the benefits through increased revenue from the tax. The private corporation dealing with water conservation has imposed trade agreements with the federal government to promote proper water trade. According to a report from Canada municipalities, to protect our water resources and services, the country must protect the resources from all trade agreements (Zafra-Gomez et al., 2106). This is because the communities require long-term infrastructure that addresses municipal infrastructure deficits. It should include funds aimed at supporting water and wastewater facilities in metropolitan and cities to meet federal standards.

The municipality government provides the majority of water and waste management. Most local and cities have been offering safe drinking water and high-quality sanitation. Municipality requires funding to expand the water infrastructure systems to provide sufficient water services to the people (Zafra-Gomez et al., 2106). It is the responsibility of the municipal government to privatize the water system and ensure proper rights are followed when providing the water services.

The pressure from water privatization increases every year despite the recorded failure in Canada. The municipalities have rejected much water privatization contracts in fear of increased poor management of water utilities. In 2003 the city of Hamilton ended the Public-private partnership water privatization due to increased environmental problems and mismanagement by several private water sectors (Zafra-Gomez et al., 2106). The sewage spills flooded in Hamilton Harbor city and homes, which led to additional cost in cleaning the city.

In 2010 also the city of Brussels ended water privatization contract with Aquiris (Zafra-Gomez et al., 2106). The privatization corporation dumped wastewater to the river for nine days while in conflict with the public authority. The residents in the city suffered from unclean water from the river, which is the source of clean water. Municipal streams should be protected from dumping wastewater to provide clean water to the residents in the cities and towns. Private firms should promote proper maintenance of water resources, such as a river.

In 2015, Jakarta water system imposed high water fee to the residents and inadequate supply of clean and drinkable water and water system operated for 16 years (Staddon, 2106). The privatization of water also impaired the municipal government to monitor the quality of water services to the residents. The water system was returned to public control after the court ruling. It ensures the residents receive proper water utilities and services at affordable prices from the municipal government.

Water Privatization lead to proper to adequate sanitation facilities and safe drinking water, which is a human right in Canada. It is the responsibility of municipalities to ensure the residents are acquiring water services. Water shut-off policies are standard in Canada (Zafra-Gomez et al., 2106). Residents who are unable to pay water bills are cut off with little resources and later face extra charges from water shut-off and reactivation. The residents in the municipals live in great fear of water shut-off, especially those living at a moderate living condition who cannot afford high prices from private sector water companies. Privatization of water contracts is difficult to reverse back to public control. Once the municipalities and cities have sign water system contract to a private company, if the company fails to meet the requirement, it could be difficult to reverse the contracts (Zafra-Gomez et al., 2106).

Privatization of water system increase competition between the public and private sector water companies (Zafra-Gomez et al., 2106). Municipalities that privatize their water system increase competition because firms will have to compete with others for the right to manage water resource, which has led to poor water infrastructure and water delivery services in cities and municipalities in Canada. Private firms can become inefficient and wasteful when they practice unhealthy competition, which means the water and sanitation services offered to them are of poor quality.

Water privatization undermines water quality. Many private firms main plan is to make a profit rather than serving the residents in the cities and towns. The environmental standards have hence compromised that lead to untested water offered to the residents (Bates, 2017). For example, Walkerton in Canada, people died as a result of oil contamination in drinking water. The private firm contracted to offer water testing, but it failed to alert the government about the pollution, which leads to the death of residents. The private company that was contracted to test the water was later closed by the municipal government.

In Canada, the public-private partnerships model of water and wastewater management has been advocated by the municipal government of Canada cities and Canadian council for public-private partnership (Staddon, 2106). It argues that private sectors involvement in water management will help to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and to improve customer accountability. Many cities have suffered negative impacts of public-private partnership. In 1993, Moncton city suffered from constant water advisory boil, which was caused by discolouration and poor quality water with lousy taste (Kitchen, 2017). The cities open up for bidding with three firms in fear of the increased cost of maintenance. During this period, the residents paid high water fees. Today, the residents in this city pay high water rates charges compared to the prices before the public-private partnerships. According to municipality report, the water rates increased by 60% between the years 1998 to 2000 (Kitchen, 2017).

In 2008, the municipality of Canada recorded competition between the private firms and municipal government (Kitchen, 2017). The private firms focus on pursuing a new market for the First Nation communities while the municipal government seeks to address the growing water crises in the cities. The municipal government funding of water infrastructure has been inappropriate and inadequate to address the water crises in the cities. The federal government advocates for privatization to take control of the water services in the first nations communities through the public-private partnership (Staddon, 2106). It has contributed to the privatization of water systems to provide quality water services to the first nation communities, which will increase the profits margins in the municipality council.

In 2002 in the city of Halifax, the Suez private corporation was supposed to build sewage treatment companies to operate in the town (Kitchen, 2017). The three sewage companies ensured proper sewage management in the city. In 2003, the corporation failed to meet the contract agreement which led the Halifax municipal council to withdraw the contract. The corporation was unable to meet the environmental water standard, which would have imposed high costs to taxpayers. The municipality government completed the project.

In 2014, the Hamilton city through a public-private partnership signed a contact with Philip environmental group and utility to operate the water and wastewater treatment plants (Staddon, 2106). The contract targeted to create more profit to the city and cutting cost like labour. The wastewater treatment had operation failure that left many homes and business covered with raw sewage, chemicals and heavy metals. The company was blamed for the poor operating machine in the wastewater treatment plant. It unplanned high costs of cleaning the city and compensating those who were affected (Staddon, 2106). Privatization of water system should undergo rules to ensure they focus on the lives of people and not the profits made from the business.

Water privatization is associated with many challenges which are private water system has begun to stall in Canada. Municipal and cities government has started to own back their water and wastewater management roles of the people living in the c...