Finland has had a livid discussion about privatising local water companies, and a plan to privatise parts of water management in Jyväskylä has been met with a citizen's initiative to make a law banning such privatisation. It quickly collected the 50 000 signatures required to bring it to the parliament to process.
There have been many articles (e.g. in Helsingin Sanomat) about how horribly expensive the water has become in London, where Thames Water was privatised.
What these articles do not tell that the "hideously expensive" water of London is in fact clearly cheaper than that of the municipal companies in Finland. Take a look at the pricing for water:
Per-m³ charge:
Thames Water: £2.27 = 2.70 € / m³.
Helsinki Region: 3.23 € / m³.
Annual fixed charges for a 125 m² house:
Thames Water: £21.86+£72.88 = 112.76 € / year.
Helsinki Region: 12*3.0*3.65€ = 131,40 € / year.
Tariffs include fresh water, wastewater management and handling of runoff water.
(In London there are also other tariffs, including not metered, which sounds crazy and generous for wasteful water users).
So, altogether, the prices in Helsinki, with municipally owned water management, are about 20 % higher than in the privatised, horribly expensive rip-off London. This is hardly due to lack of freshwater sources in Finland.
Of course, there is a much better reason. The water charges are a cash cow for municipalities. They can charge more and spend plenty of resources internally (including, but not limited to, cushy jobs for former politicians) and still generate some profits for the owner, i.e. the municipality.
And the latter of course makes me happy because I'm a well-to-do taxpayer: income taxes are proportional to income, but water charges are the same for everyone, so moving municipal taxation from proportional taxes into fixed sum charges (that are per inhabitant regardless of income) are better for the well-to-do people.
The bottom line is, I agree that privatising a natural monopoly isn't a good idea, so this is quite OK. So let's just tax the poor!
