Reclaiming Public Water book

Achievements, Struggles and Visions from Around the World

9 March 2007
Belén Balanyá

The groundbreaking book on how reformed public water services can achieve the goal of delivering water for all. Includes additional new chapters.


Arabic edition - French edition - Spanish edition - Indonesian edition - Italian edition - Chinese edition - Finnish edition - Korean edition - Japanese edition - Hindi edition - Brazilian edition


The book costs € 10 (12 US dollar) per copy + pp. For ordering more than 5 copies price is € 7.5 per copy. Send an email with your name and postal address to Satoko Kishimoto A review copy of "Reclaiming Public Water" is available for media on request.


Click here to download the book.

Foreword [PDF]

New foreword for French edition, 2010 [PDF]

Introduction [PDF] by David Hall

*New chapters*

Part 1: Successful Public Water

Part 2: Public Water. Work in Progress

Part 3: Struggles for People-centred Public Water

Empowering Public Water - Ways Forward [PDF]
the editorial team

New chapters added since first publication

French edition:

English edition:

Arabic edition:

Hindi edition

Chinese edition (September 2006)

  Portuguese edition (July 2007):

Revised chapter on Uruguay

Uruguay: direct democracy in defence of the right to water
Carlos Santos y Alberto Villareal

Notes on Authors [PDF]

Resources [PDF]

March 2007
Transnational Institute and Corporate Europe Observatory (eds.)
ISBN/ISSN: 90-71007-10-3

About the authors

Brid Brennan

Brid has put Transnational Institute at the heart of dynamic international networks from every continent campaigning against trade liberalisation. She is co-founder of the European Solidarity Centre for the Philippines and most recently, RESPECT, a Europe-wide anti-racist network for migrant domestic workers. 

Olivier Hoedeman

Olivier Hoedeman (Dutch/Danish, MA Political Science), is the research and campaign co-ordinator at Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), an Brussels-based civil society group targeting the threats to democracy, equity, social justice and the environment posed by the economic and political power of corporations and their lobby groups. CEO co-organises the water project with TNI.

Philipp Terhorst

Philipp Terhorst (PhD at the Water Engineering and Development Centre, WEDC) is an activist researcher and collaborates with the TNI Water Justice Project.

Satoko Kishimoto

She was an environmental activist and active in the youth environmental movement in Japan in the 1990s. She began working with TNI in 2003, at the time of 3rd World Water Forum held in Kyoto, Japan. TNI successfully organized a seminar on Alternatives to Water Privatisation, which was the starting point of the Water Justice Project. In 2005, the Reclaiming Public Water (RPW) Network was created with the contributors to the book 'Reclaiming Public Water'. TNI serves as the coordinating hub of the RPW network and Satoko is the coordinator of the network. The RPW network connects activists, trade unionists, researchers, community activists, and public water operators from around the world, and advocates progressive public water reforms and Public-Public Partnerships as the key elements for solving the global crisis in access to clean water and sanitation. 

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