I’m OK with outsourcing water operations to the private sector but there is not a chance in hell that we can ever transfer a right to water itself to a private company (as in the catchment or underground raw water)

So yes for a fee per liter to them with incentives built into the tariff to reduce losses, optimize billing recovery, etc.

Biggest problem is that by nature of utilities you are creating a monopoly as it would be impossible to have two private companies competing for Joe Bloggs’ residential water supply