1.1 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water, and more than 2 million children die from dirty water and unhygienic sanitation each year. This was the bleak picture painted this week in Mexico City during the 4th World Water Forum. But is privatization the answer?

The Globalisation Institute thinks so. This week they released a report advocating greater use of private-sector management and investment in developing country water systems. Water for Life blames the current problems on the fact that 95% of the world's potable water is supplied by governments rather than by properly regulated private sector providers.

"Government provision in water has overseen millions of deaths through poor quality and lack of sanitation. Bringing in private sector expertise and investment is needed, both to meet the UN's Millennium Development Goals and to actively contribute towards social justice the world over. In the vast majority of cases, where the private sector has been called upon, it has delivered the goods – even in cases decried by critics as failures."