An action plan to build grassroots power needed to resist water privatization and advance public water solutions.
Introduction
In May 2025, Pittsburgh residents made a historic move to protect their water for generations to come — by voting to ban the sale or lease of the city’s water and sewage systems to private corporations.
With more than 78% of voters choosing to keep their water in public hands, this decision sends a strong message to the private water industry that essential community services like water are not up for sale. But this wasn’t Pittsburgh’s first fight against water privatization. In fact, this victory took nearly a decade of relentless organizing to achieve.
Corporate Accountability first partnered with Pittsburgh organizers in 2016, when we joined a coalition to expose Veolia, a giant of the private water industry, for its role in the city’s emerging lead crisis and build power behind demands for accountability. Together, we successfully exposed Veolia’s track record of harm in cities across the U.S.
Still, the threat of privatization continued to loom over Pittsburgh. In 2019, we and our allies stopped another attempt to privatize the city’s water system by a different corporation. So, when the opportunity to permanently shut full-scale water privatization out of Pittsburgh arose, our local allies wasted no time in springing into action.
They campaigned to secure a ballot referendum to ban the sale or lease of Pittsburgh’s water system to a private entity. In the meantime, we partnered with Pennsylvania United and Flint Rising to organize the second annual Flint/Pittsburgh day of action, connecting the dots between Veolia and the two cities’ fight for water justice. We also helped mobilize Corporate Accountability’s
Pittsburgh-based members to spread the word and vote in the referendum, all of which helped deliver the resounding mandate to keep Pittsburgh’s water under public control.
With this victory, Pittsburgh becomes the second major U.S. city after Baltimore to ban the most extreme forms of water privatization. Most importantly, it proves that when we come together, we can take on the most powerful corporations — and win. Here’s how.
Protecting public water is key to defending our freedoms
At its core, Corporate Accountability’s water campaign aims to protect one of our most essential resources and public services from being exploited by corporations. We do this by focusing on stopping the threat of water privatization in communities across the U.S. and around the world, exposing the abuses of the private water industry, and helping build a strong movement for water justice that transcends borders.
For many communities around the world, privatizing water comes at a steep cost, especially for Black communities, other communities of color, communities in the Global South, and low-income communities. These costs include:
- Unaffordable water bills
- Service shutoffs for households unable to pay these outrageously high bills
- Cost-cutting measures that jeopardize water quality and people’s health
- Infrastructure neglect
- Labor abuses and layoffs
On the contrary, when water systems are democratically controlled and adequately funded, we move ever closer to universal access. This is why we believe that Corporate Accountability’s water campaign stands at the forefront of upholding democracy and protecting the public good. And by ensuring that people’s needs are prioritized over corporate profits, we and our partners are protecting the right to safe, clean, and affordable water for millions of people.
Some of Corporate Accountability’s most significant wins came during the first Trump term, when we and our allies stopped water privatization attempts in Providence, Pittsburgh, and Jacksonville. During this time, we also forced industry giant Veolia to abandon its flagship privatization model in the U.S. — fundamentally shifting the private water industry leader’s business model. And the industry has taken note, with analysts citing “pushback” in Flint and Pittsburgh as a reason the industry should “reassess” its approach.
We also have a proven track record of preventing pro-privatization pushes at the federal level, together with water justice organizations across the country. In 2021, we and our partners successfully kept all new water privatization provisions out of the historic infrastructure package that ultimately allocated over $50 billion of investments into water infrastructure across the country.
Despite these victories, the private water industry is still finding new ways — and new cities — to expand its business. In 2026, we will deepen our campaigns against water privatization and advance public water solutions. Here’s what you can expect from us in the coming year.
Building power behind widespread demands for justice and accountability from private water giant Veolia for its history
of harm.
In February 2025, Veolia — the world’s largest private water corporation — announced a $53 million settlement with Flint residents and the state of Michigan in lawsuits related to its role in the ongoing Flint water crisis.
Though this crisis first made headlines over ten years ago, the people of Flint are still dealing with the consequences of the water crisis, including longterm chronic health impacts from being exposed to lead, bacteria and other contaminants in their water supply. Corporate Accountability’s own research revealed that Veolia’s employees knew about the potential for lead contamination
in Flint’s water supply, despite telling residents that their water was “safe” — all while chasing a contract to privatize the city’s water system.
Unfortunately, Flint’s experience with Veolia isn’t unique. The corporation was also implicated in Pittsburgh’s lead crisis in 2016 for its mismanagement of the local water authority, endangering the health and wellbeing of residents throughout the city. With the tenth anniversary of the Pittsburgh water crisis approaching, we have a critical opportunity to keep the spotlight on Veolia’s ongoing attempts to evade accountability for its role in both water crises. To this end, we plan to:
a. Launch an escalating pressure campaign on Veolia to ensure that the corporation doesn’t receive any new water privatization contracts in major cities in the U.S. in 2026. This will include partnering with investigative reporters to expose Veolia’s corporate playbook on how it uses its PR machine to distract from its abuses, building a coalition of communities impacted by Veolia’s abuses in the U.S., and mobilizing our members and allies across the country to take digital and in-person actions to demand that cities “dump Veolia” and keep water systems public. We will also continue to explore opportunities to challenge Veolia’s existing major contracts and remunicipalize local water systems.
b. Organize a coordinated Flint/Pittsburgh Day of Action with our allies to elevate community demands for justice, draw national attention to Veolia’s abuses and ongoing lack of accountability, and expose the dangers that water privatization poses to communities.
Expanding the movement for public water across the African continent through the Our Water, Our Right Africa Coalition.
Decades of underinvestment and a mounting climate crisis have weakened Africa’s public water systems, opening the door for corporations like Veolia and Suez and international financial institutions to swoop in and market privatization as a solution to these issues. The result: privatization under the guise of “public-private partnerships” that serve as the backbone of a larger privatization agenda being pushed in the Global South by the private water industry and its backers.
But across the continent, communities are rising to protect their water and their rights from corporate greed. And leading this resistance is the Our Water, Our Right Africa Coalition (OWORAC) — a pan-African movement of activists, trade unions, and communities campaigning against corporate abuse and water privatization.
For five years, Corporate Accountability has strategically partnered with OWORAC through strategy development, industry research and monitoring, media cultivation, and regranting through our Movement Solidarity Fund. Together, we are building power to confront corporations and stop water privatization across multiple levels: local, national, and regional.
In 2025, the coalition welcomed new members from Zimbabwe and states across Nigeria—further cementing OWORAC’s presence as a growing force for water justice in Africa. This year, we will harness this force to:
a. Challenge an emerging threat to privatize the water system in Lagos, Nigeria. Under OWORAC’s leadership, we are organizing against an emerging water privatization threat in Lagos, Nigeria—the epicenter of the fight against water privatization in Africa. We are supporting Corporate Accountability & Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), our Lagos-based sister organization, by providing in-depth analysis of the drivers of and corporations poised to benefit from these deals, cultivating international journalists to draw more attention to the threat, and informing on-the-ground actions such as community parliaments, rallies, and public hearings.
b. Mobilize front-line communities and engage with African policymakers to prevent or reverse water privatization on the continent. This includes exposing the glaring abuses of Suez, a major private water corporation, in Dakar, Senegal, where communities and workers are bearing the brunt of corporate greed. We continue to provide support to OWORAC in organizing the coalition’s flagship Week of Action Against Water Privatization. Every October, OWORAC members launch coordinated, high-visibility actions to amplify the voices of front-line communities that are directly impacted by water privatization. These actions include community parliaments, public dialogues, anti-privatization workshops, radio discussions, online petitions, and more.
Using smart strategies, strong partnerships, and deep trust to advance water justice for millions of people.
At a time when corporate influence over public-policy is deepening, Corporate Accountability’s water campaign is key to protecting the basic rights of millions of people—not only in the U.S. but globally. We are committed to making sure that
our work serves as building blocks for a broader and stronger movement against water privatization. We are strengthening the long-term organizing capacity of our local partners. And alongside our allies, we will prevent the private water industry from securing new contracts and expanding its presence in key cities around the U.S. and the world.
This is what long-term organizing to challenge corporate power looks like: building strong networks, defending our public services together, and winning scalable victories that communities can implement all over the world to protect what’s most important to us all.
Corporate Accountability’s water campaign is at the forefront of this organizing — but it’s your continued generosity and commitment to our lifesaving work that will be vital to the success of our campaigns.
Please help us raise $430,000 by giving as generously as you can by June 15. The consequences of allowing corporations to profit off a resource as precious and life-affirming as water are devastating. But with your support, we can build the deep, long-term, and people-powered organizing needed to stop the private water industry in its tracks.
Thank you!
