The lessons from private water management seem to be: 1. It's expensive. 2. These costs do go into maintaining the infrastructure better. 3. The water quality is better. 4. It increases access to water.

But it's not a case of either or. This happens within a responsible regulatory framework. 

The big problem comes in with tenderpreneurs. If government is an active player in the game, the game tends to be fixed in favour of government players, along with the moral hazard this entails. It's no different from a private monopoly like Google doing exactly what it wants and then fixing the regulatory frameworks in its favour.

Government should be a referee, not a player.