According to Mark Stevenson, at the 4th World Water Forum in Mexico city, they already do!

"Water is not for sale," demonstrators chanted at the World Water Forum this week. But they couldn't be more wrong - private companies make much more money selling bottled water than they ever did developing public water systems... Multinationals - Pepsi, Cadbury, Nestle, Danone and Coca-Cola - supply most of the bottled water in Mexico, now the world's second-largest consumer.

One way or another, it seems that private firms are going to continue to play an increasingly important role in the global provision of drinking water, whether it be through the provision of bottled water or through the development of public water systems.

Posted by rjorr at March 21, 2006 5:13 PM