In 1992 the Dublin Water Principles claimed ‘‘water as an economic good’’ for the first time in a UN setting. But water has been recognized as an economic good for many centuries before 1992. Throughout Europe and the early United States private water supply companies thrived in a wide variety ofsettings. The ‘‘sanitary revolution’’ ofthe 19th century saw the demand for public ownership and management ofmost ofthese companies in the name ofpublic health. This, of course, did not obviate the need for water to be treated as an economic good, but a heavy emphasis on the public-good nature ofwater and its disposal led to the development ofheavily subsidized public systems. With the exception ofFrance, this was the path followed in most countries around the world. In the late 1980s, however, the World Bank and other multilateral and bilateral institutions discovered the virtues of‘‘privatization’’ in the provision ofpublic services and with privatization all of the attendant problems of setting tariffs and prices.