Outsourcing: What Makes a Private Water Contract Work?

What ingredients go into making a successful private water operation contract? When such a contract proceeds smoothly, neither side is likely to discuss a contract in detail. When conflict arises, the contract is largely defined only by points of disagreement.We asked three proponents of privatized water services what they believed to be the features of a well-designed and executed private water contract.“The most important feature of contracting out water services is an open process,” says David Stokes, a policy analyst with Missouri’s Show-Me Institute, an organization supporting policies based in free markets and individual liberty. “The public needs to know