Water Privatization in Brazil - Opposition

Opposition

Opposition to privatization has too often been characterized by "controversial and emotional debates," laced with “doubts, fears and prejudices” originating from generalized objections to globalization and neoliberalism. Similarly, according to Lemos and Oliveira many potentially beneficial public private partnerships (PPPs) have suffered from widespread mistrust—bred by “decades of broken promises”—and numerous “accounts of policy failure.”

Many politically influential groups in Brazil harbor an “outright aversion to private capital participation” in water and other essential services. Politically, water privatization has often been conflated with conflicts over decentralization vis-à-vis the return of control from State water companies established under the military regime to re-municipalized companies. Thus, Brazilian water reform has remained “paralyzed by the controversy” because the municipal-state contest has too often been reduced to a question of which level of government should have the authority to grant concessions to private actors, rather than the authority to develop a coherent policy including both public and private elements.

Political parties that oppose privatization include the Workers' Party (PT) and the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL).