Ethical problems of the privatization of water services. Document presented for the Ethics course, with good research on the Chinese market. Privatization of public systems has been ongoing in both developed and developing countries for many years, perhaps most forcefully in developing countries in the last decade due to their greater dependence on public companies. Inefficiency of many public companies and the associated burden on the countries that bear them has probably been the most commonly used reason to justify them. Other reasons were also: expertise of private companies, less capital funds needed to start the project (in case of new projects) and less resources needed by the government to control the daily operations of the company. Water supply systems have also been a target of privatization in many countries, especially in low- and middle-income countries (see Figure 1). Fig 1: Investment in privatization of water supply systems in millions of dollars from 1991 to 2005 for low- and middle-income countries As we can see in Figure 1, the areas with a higher concentration of water supply privatization were Asia Pacific and Latin America. However, why is the privatization of water supply controversial? Many countries establish in their constitutions that water is a right of their citizens and according to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, access to water is a human right (November 26, 2002, “The human right to water entitles all to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and convenient water for personal and domestic uses"). However, how can we ensure that this right is enforced when private companies are responsible for providing the service? Let's see the t...... half of the document ...... the municipal concession should be between 8 and 12%, but the 2002 Opinion on accelerating the commercialization of urban services indicates that the authorities Chinese cannot provide guarantees to investors for privatizations. ) The fact is therefore that the central government is in favor of increasing prices but the provincial government, which has to deal with unpopular price increases, tends to protect customers. On the other hand, investors with bargaining power (mainly foreign investors) can manage in some cases to secure better deals, such as provisions for compensation in case of regulatory changes, a higher initial tariff or a more advantageous tariff adjustment formula. Certainly, the challenge for the Chinese authorities is to be able to develop a solid regulatory regime for the privatization of water services adapted to the specific characteristics of China.