The industrial revolution took place where water was abundant. It was used in industrial processes, and then thrown away mixed with toxins without a second thought. Slowly this has changed, and industry is more careful now than in the past ... but not everywhere. Big industry is still comfortable with polluting water when it is far from the eyes of the inquisitie press. The Niger Delta is one area where pollution is catastrophic. and nobody really gives a damn.

Much of the water infrastructure is old and inadequate for today. The same goes for sewer and waste treatment facilities. The idea that the water sector should be a 'for profit' market driven enterprise oriented arena, is however, a bad idea based on thinking about the way society and the economy works that is out of date, and increasingly dysfunctional.

The idea of a private sector enterprise rather than a government run operation is fine, but the purpose of the enterprise is not to maximize profit, but to produce value by producing a good impact for people, place and planet ... and being profitable and being able to give investors an adequate return. Optimizing for these four things is a different outcome than optimizing just for profit.