WATER ABLAZE - Patagonia Sin Represas

GREEDY CORPORATIONS AND
NEOLIBERAL INSTITUTIONS
15
15.1 Some of the Titans Actively Engaged on the
Water Battlefield
American Water (USA/Germany)
American Water is a public utility company operating in the USA
and Canada. It was founded in 1886 as the American Water Works
& Guarantee Company. In 1947, it was reorganised as the American
Water Works Company, Inc. The company was once a subsidiary of
the German-based RWE Group, but was divested by the latter on April
23, 2008 in an IPO on the stock market. Several municipalities in the
USA battled to regain local government control of their water supply
networks, including the citizens of Felton/California who fought for
locally-owned water (FLOW). With headquarters in Voorhees, New
Jersey, American Water has about 6,900 employees and provides
services to approximately 16∙2 million people in 32 U.S. states and
Ontario, Canada.
w w w . a m w a t e r . c o m (English)
w w w . f e l t o n f l o w . o r g (critical website)
Aguas de Barcelona S.A./Agbar (Spain)
Grupo Agbar (Sociedad General de Aguas de Barcelona, S.A.) is a Spanish
company providing services in the supply, distribution and treatment
of water. The company was founded in Liège in 1867 as the Compagnie
des Eaux de Barcelone by investors from France and Catalonia (Spain).
The group is present in almost every continent – North America, South
America, Asia and Europe. Company headquarters are in Barcelona.
w w w. a g b a r. e s (Spanish)
Bechtel (USA)
The San Francisco-based Bechtel Group is the largest engineering
corporation in the USA, ranking as the seventh-largest privatelyowned
company in that country. As of 2009, Bechtel had 44,000
employees working on projects in nearly 50 countries, with an annual
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