This paper has two principal aims: first, to unravel some of the arguments mobilized in the controversial privatization debate, and second, to review the scale and nature of private sector provision of water and sanitation in Africa, Asia and Latin America… the paper is pessimistic about the role that privatization can play in achieving the Millennium Development Goals of halving the number of people without access to water and sanitation by 2015. This is...because neither publicly nor privately operated utilities are well suited to serving the majority of low-income households...and because many of the barriers to service provision in poor settlements can persist whether water and sanitation utilities are publicly or privately operated. [refers to Saur (part of Bouygues), Veolia, Thames Water (part of RWE), Suez, Aguas Argentinas (part of Suez), Aguas de Barcelona (Grupo Agbar), Biwater, Maynilad Water (part of Suez), Manila Water (joint venture Ayala, Mitsubishi Corp. & United Utilities)]