"Water has become a commodity whose quantity and quality are
much too important to leave to the whims of public authorities.
Water supply systems are in need of regulation through private
ownership rights and markets for the transfer of these rights. Read
this book and find out why."
-Vernon L. Smith, Nobel Laureate in Economics
"When it comes to water policy books, relevance and sense are rare
commodities. So it's a pleasant surprise that Fredrik Segerfeldt
has provided both in this most useful addition to the literature.
Water privatization has proved difficult nearly everywhere it's
been tried, but, as this book neatly explains, the alternative has
usually been worse. Water for Sale should be widely read,
especially by engineers, hydrologists, and government officials who
know little, and usually care even less, about markets."
-Roger Bate, Africa Fighting Malaria
"Fredrik Segerfeldt's book Water for Sale is an excellent
argument for private management of humankind's most valuable
natural resource. Its thesis is both provocative and
suggestive-water is scarce in developing countries because of poor
management, not because it is in short supply. Water policy affects
the future of millions of people across the globe. Segerfeldt
offers an efficient, sure, and safe alternative for this future.
With this hope, I sincerely recommend this book."
-Beatriz Merino, Former Prime Minister of Peru
"The critics of privatization insist that water is too important to
be left to the mercies of private enterprise. In this fascinating
study, Fredrik Segerfeldt demonstrates that the opposite is true:
water is too important not to be subject to market forces. The
debate should, he shows, not be over whether to take the supply and
distribution of water away from incompetent government agencies and
introduce prices, property rights, and private enterprise instead,
but over how best to do so."
-Martin Wolf, Associate Editor, Financial Times
"Water for Sale is chock full of evidence of the success
of free-market water projects and the failures of water socialism.
The book is remarkably effective in demonstrating that supposedly
cold-hearted capitalism does wonders for poor people when it's
allowed to function, and also that the supposedly compassionate
advocates of statism are committed to policies that help keep the
poor mired in poverty and misery. So let's hoist a glass of
water-or any other beverage you choose-to Fredrik Segerfeldt for
this enlightening book.
-George Leef, The Freeman.
