The conquest of water in Europe: management models (nineteenth and twentieth centuries)

Abstract

This article analyzes the process of legalization and privatization that the supply of potable water has undergone in several countries. The origin has been studied in the XIX century and its subsequent evolution throughout the XX century. The countries that have been examined derive from Northern Europe (Great Britain, France, Germany) and from the southern part (mainly Spain and Italy). This information allows us to estimate the degree of development, the patterns of behavior and the organizational structure of these services in the old continent. Amongst the most significant aspects, we have to underline the importance of the British case, the establishment of organizations with a regional character in the management of water, the financial and administrative problems of the towns, apart from the emergence and the development of the private enterprise.