‘People Is All That Is Left to Privatize’: Water Supply Privatization, Globalization and Social Justice in Belize City, Belize DAANISH MUSTAFA and PHILIP REEDER Abstract This article presents the findings of an extensive survey on public and policy level perceptions of the failed water supply and sanitation system privatization in Belize City. Drawing upon the burgeoning critical geographical literature on the commodification and privatization of water, we formulate a conceptual framework for analyzing the ethnographic data on perceptions and experience of privatization by Belize City water users. The experience of water supply privatization was largely negative. Residents complained bitterly about an increase in water tariffs and excessive disconnection rates by the privatized Belize Water Supply Limited (BWSL). Many policy makers also accused BWSL of front-loading profits and not making strategic investments in infrastructure. But the symbolic significance of water privatization for the residents of a small Caribbean country like Belize exceeded its practical implications. We argue that the major themes to emerge from the ethnographic data collected for the study can be synthesized into three ‘popular privatization narratives’ (PPNs). The first was based on the perception that poor governance led to privatization; the second on a preference for national- over global-scale politics, so that objections to privatization were based on nationalism; the third on angst about losing control to the systemic compulsions of neoliberal globalization. Overall the privatization process not only had important (largely negative) material consequences for Belizeans but, given their historical and cultural geography, profound discursive and symbolic consequences for their sense of identity in a condition of neoliberal globalization. Introduction Through most of the twentieth century, except for the last two decades, provision of urban water supply was deemed to be one of the core elements of the social contract between the state and its populace. The recent trend towards increased private-sector control of water supply networks in urban areas is not unprecedented (Swyngedouw et al., 2002). Some of the earliest urban water supply networks, e.g. in London in the early eighteenth century, were also privately owned. What is unique about the recent The research for this article was supported by a grant from the Dr. Kiran C. Patel Center for Global Solutions at the University of South Florida. A debt of thanks is owed to Dr April Bernard, Dr Kevin Jeban, Karin Derosier, Adrian Bartley, Deserie Warner and Martha Jonch, all from the University of Belize, for assisting in and facilitating the field research. The fieldwork would not have been possible without the help of these individuals. We must also acknowledge the citizens of Belize City who gave of their time to answer our questions. Volume 33.3 September 2009 789–808 International Journal of Urban and Regional Research DOI:10.1111/j.1468-2427.2009.00849.x © 2009 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2009 Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published by Blackwell Publishing. 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA