ABSTRACT
In our discussion of UN involvement in water privatization, so far we have largely concentrated on user-pay schemes for domestic water supplies. However, equally threatening to human rights has been the widespread and forceful application of neoliberal principles by the UN, and its agencies, in imposing dam construction on various countries and river systems. Indeed, in general one can say that the infrastructure implications of dam construction are even more destructive globally to environmental sustainability and to human rights than is the idea of privatized supply of good-quality water for domestic use. Dam building also involves a much greater capital outlay and provides much greater scope for corporations in the First World to literally (and figuratively!) make a killing in the Third World. On top of this, and unlike discrepancies in local domestic water supply, dam building has immense potential for environmental damage far beyond the localities in which the dams are constructed.
