Public Water and Covid-19 Dark Clouds and Silver Linings

Publication date:

Covid-19 has once again demonstrated the significance of safe, accessible and affordable water for all. It has also highlighted enormous disparities in service provision while at the same time dealing a blow to public water and sanitation operators around the world due to massive drops in revenues, rapidly rising costs and concerns about health and safety in the workplace. This book provides the first global overview of the response of public water operators to this crisis, shining a light on the complex challenges they face and how they have responded in different contexts. It looks specifically at ‘public’ water and asks how public ownership and public management have enabled (or not) equitable and democratic emergency services, and how these Covid-19 experiences could contribute to expanded and sustainable forms of public water services in the future.

About public water and covid-19

Publication type
Book
ISBN/ISSN
E-Book: 978-1-55339-666-6

Public Water and Covid-19: Dark Clouds and Silver Linings

Download the complete book here.

Chapter 1: Introduction: Why Public Water Matters
David A. McDonald, Susan Spronk and Daniel Chavez

Chapter 2: Covid-19 and Structural Inequalities: Class, Gender, Race and Water Justice
Susan Spronk

Chapter 3: Are We All in This Together? Covid-19 and the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation
Alex Loftus and Farhana Sultana

Chapter 4: Reinventing Public Water amid Covid-19 in Terrassa
Mar Satorras, David Saurí and Hug March

Chapter 5: Water Shutoff Moratoria in the United States: The Role of Cities and States
Mildred E. Warner, Marcela González Rivas, Mary Grant and Xue Zhang

Chapter 6: Community-Based Water Provision in Colombia in Times Of Covid-19
Denisse Roca-Servat, María Botero Mesa and Sara Correa Zuluaga

Chapter 7: A Beacon of Hope at a Time of Crisis? Pursuit of Affordable Public Water in Baltimore
Mary Grant

Chapter 8: Covid-19, Water and the State in Uruguay: Dark Clouds Over a Successful Model of Public Services Delivery
Daniel Chavez, Pablo Messina and Martín Sanguinetti

Chapter 9: Transnational Solidarity: European Public Water Operators Working Across Borders to Address Covid-19
Milo Fiasconaro and Jovana Gojkovic

Chapter 10: Water Operators Partnerships (WOPs): Public Utility Knowledge Exchange and Solidarity in Response to Crisis
Craig Laird and Elisa Bernal

Chapter 11: Defending Public Water in Times Of Crisis: “Popular Water Government” in Caracas, Venezuela
Rebecca J. McMillan

Chapter 12: A Double-Edged Sword? Covid-19 and Water Remunicipalization in Jakarta
Marwa Marwa

Chapter 13: An Opportunity to Pause and Reimagine: Jamaica’s Public Water After Covid-19
Beverley Mullings

Chapter 14: An Insider’s Perspective: HAMBURG WASSER’s Response to Covid-19
Christopher Herzog, Arnd Wendland and Claudia Wendland

Chapter 15: Covid-19 And The Hope for Democratic Water Ownership In Ghana
Leonard Shang-Quartey

Chapter 16: A Democracy Stress Test: Eau De Paris and The Covid-19 Crisis
Anne Le Strat

Chapter 17: Nigeria’s Informal Water Providers: Filling in The Public Gaps
Susan Agada

Chapter 18: A Tale of Two Water Operators: Legacies of Public Versus Private Amidst Covid-19 in Pittsburgh
Marcela González Rivas

Chapter 19: The Long Road Out of Crisis: (Re)building Trust in Flint’s Public Water from Poisoning to Pandemic
Benjamin J. Pauli

Chapter 20: Full Cost Recovery Meets Crisis: Guaranteeing Access to Water Under Covid-19 In Colombia
Jeimy Alejandra Arias Castaño and Kathryn Furlong

Chapter 21: Cape Town’s Crisis-Ridden Response to Covid-19
Greg Ruiters

Chapter 22: Sober Second Thoughts: Covid-19 and Water Privatization in Canada
Robert Ramsay

Chapter 23: The Paradox Of Free Urban Water: Burkina Faso’s Fight Against Covid-19
Catherine Baron and Léandre Guigma

Chapter 24: Adaptability, Community and Solidarity: Public water operators in France during Covid-19
France Eau Publique

Chapter 25: “The People Won't Give up, Damn it!”: Reclaiming Public Water in Buenaventura, Colombia
Tatiana Acevedo Guerrero

Chapter 26: The Success of Public Water in Battling Covid-19 In Finland
Petri S. Juuti and Riikka P. Rajala

Chapter 27: Blue Communities in Quebec: Upholding The Highest Water Standards in Uncertain Times
Isabelle Delainey

Chapter 28: Ability to Pay Versus Right to Water: Commercial Imperatives and Social-public Alternatives in Medellin, Colombia
Denisse Roca-Servat and Erika Meneses