The transformation in water service with neoliberal policies: Privatizations, alternative models of water service in the World and Turkey

Only 2.5% of the world's waters are exist of fresh water that can meet people's drinking water needs. However, this whole share of 2.5% is not possible to reach. Because, a large part of these waters are found as groundwater and frozen in glaciers. This situation shows how limited the amount of fresh water that can be reached for sustainability of life. In this context, access to clean water means access the right to life. So, denying the right to water means denying the right to life. In spite of this reality, the capitalist system, which proceeds in the direction of infinite capital accumulation, intervenes in water by means of neoliberal policies starting in the 1970s and approaches to the issue with a commercial goods perspective that can be offered in the market. It is attempted to be commodified by the discourses that water is a scarce good and at the same time, it is not a right but a need because of that only the private sector can best manage it. With these initiatives, the water whose publicity has been removed by commodification, the privatization of water services for productive and efficient management is shown as a sole remedy. In this study, based on the hypothesis that water is a right; and considered within the framework of whether water is a private property, a public property or a right, primarily the importance of water is addressed; then, the right to water, the process of privatization of water and its results are examined within the framework of country examples; finally, water service models are presented as an alternative to privatization and inferring about the nature of water.