The World Bank participated in events and showcased investments in water services at the World Water Forum held in France in March. However, critics from civil society accused the Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation, of furthering corporate control of water (see Update 78, 77). “The World Bank and its corporate clients have sought for decades to remove water policy-making from transparent governmental spaces to business-oriented forums like the World Water Forum”, said US NGO Corporate Accountability. “By taking a profit stake in the fortunes of the private water industry, the Bank has allowed its mission of poverty alleviation to take a second seat to facilitating the profits of client corporations.”