ABSTRACT
This chapter examines water services in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. I begin by tracing the political economy of structural adjustment in the country, from the early 1980s until today, and discuss the ways in which market reforms have strengthened the national elite. I then turn specifically to the water sector to analyse the legislative and institutional reforms that began in 1993. Ongoing efforts to open water services in Lusaka to private sector participation (an initiative supported by the state, the World Bank, donors and private water companies) exemplify how neoliberal ideology has penetrated the policymaking arena to the degree that privatization is still considered a sound policy measure, despite domestic and international evidence to the contrary, and how any possibility of public alternatives has been foreclosed.
