A Win in the Water War / Stockton, Calif., residents have stopped one multinational company from taking over their water system, but other localities remain threatened
Source: By Megan Tady, In These Times, August 1, 2007
Bill Lokyo never expected to find himself embroiled in a six-year battle over water with a multinational corporation and city officials in Stockton, Calif. .
....... But Lokyo and the group Concerned Citizens Coalition of Stockton (CCOS) felt compelled to challenge a rushed deal that turned the city’s publicly owned water system into a for-profit venture. This month, their perseverance paid off when the city finally sent privatization packing.
........ “It’s both symbolic for the anti-water privatization movement, and it’s a real victory for the citizens’ groups of Stockton—it means that the ordeal of water privatization is over for the city of 270,000 people,” says Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food and Water Watch.