The privatisation of water has been accompanied by large profits, higher prices, cut-offs to customers who cannot pay, lack of transparency, reduced water quality, bribery and corruption, says a book from the Council of Canadians and the Polaris Institute, which takes a sobering look at the growing scarcity of fresh water and argues that the commodification of water is wrong on ethical, environmental and social grounds. The book notes that trade agreements are robbing governments of their control over domestic water supplies: with water now classified as a good, global trade institutions give transnational corporations unprecedented access to the freshwater resources of signatory countries.