Although water is all around, very little is drinkable. Six billion people live on earth and 1.1 billion in 31 countries are unable to access safe, clean drinking water. California has only 20 years of water supply left. Ironically, even the wettest place on earth, Cherrapunji, India, has often water shortages. After years of millions of people dying of thirst and disease, a corporate movement to find a solution to the water crisis has now swept the world. Water, a fleeting resource vital to every life, every single day of the year, is now being taken out of the governments control and becoming a commodity bought and sold by big business, a.k.a privatization.
Water privatization at a glance seems like a knight in shining Armani. Foreign companies go into poor countries with bad water sources, shmooze the government with an offer to pay off the country's World Bank debt in exchange for a contract, and these white knights set up shop to make the water drinkable. In richer areas, the temptation of what these foreign companies brand as safer, cheaper, better managed water is a no brainer. Even in American cities, the offer was too good to pass up. Many of these states are learning they've been given a run for their money. Companies buying and selling water as a good has brought many unseen downfalls. As many around the world are learning, water treated as a commodity has a lower quality, higher price, and for many, may be the cause of much suffering; therefore, water privatization is a poor solution for the water crisis.
First of all, governments are intended to serve the people, where businesses intend to make profit. Water treated as a commodity will never be economically fair because of the way businesses work. Water doesn't r...
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Justification for intervention for economic regulatory efforts arises out of alleged inability of the marketplace to deal with particular structural problems. Of course, details of any program often reflect political force, not reasoned argument. Yet thoughtful justification is still needed when programs are evaluated.[1]
Maude Barlow’s “Water Incorporated: The Commodification of the World’s Water” gives a voice to a very real, but vastly unknown, issue: the privatization of water. I refer to it as vastly unknown because it wasn’t until this article that I was even aware such a power struggle existed. Barlow first introduces startling statistics, meant to grab the attention of its readers. Once she has your attention, she introduces the “new generation of trade and investment agreements.” (306)
Humans need water. In a world that is overpopulated, we use a lot of water and other natural resources. Currently, in our world, clean water is getting scarce. Recently, for example, Flint, Michigan, had a water crisis. In early 2016, the water was discovered to be tainted with lead and other toxins. Long before that, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and Governor Rick Snyder along with his council, knew about the lead, but to save money for the city of Flint in early 2014 Snyder had changed the city’s water source to the Flint River which had corroded pipes, causing people of all ages to be sick from the high amounts of lead
I do agree that policy makers in Texas need to consider water scarcity as a strong issue. We use and need water on an everyday basis as well do the farms that grow the food we purchase at supermarkets. I read the article on water scarcity by Keith Phillips and understand the current water trade being implemented, but because of the high demand of water and its scarcity I believe the system should be changed. Owners do have the right to their property, but the policy makers should consider ways to place restrictions due to current situation on water. Having land owners extracting large amounts of water on daily basis for sale purposes is not benefiting any long- term plans for our water
All of the case studies presented show a unique mixture of issues stemming from property rights, public goods, externalities, interjurisdictional spillovers and a fantastic illustration of Coase Theorem and Hardin’s Tragedy of the Commons. Water usage and rights are a pertinent and urgently growing issue that often pits economic development, sustenance and environmental health externalities at odds with each other.
In the documentary, Blue Gold: World Water Wars, it follows several people and countries world-wide in their fight for fresh water. The film exposes giant corporations as they bully poorer developing countries to privatize their own supply of fresh water. As a result of the privatization, corporations make a hefty profit while the developing countries remain poor. Blue Gold: World Water Wars also highlights the fact that Wall Street investors are going after the desalination process and mass water export schemes. This documentary also shows how people in more developed nations are treating the water with much disregard, and not taking care of our finite supply. We are polluting, damming, and simply wasting our restricted supply of fresh water at an alarming speed. The movie also recognizes that our quick overdevelopment of housing and agriculture puts a large strain on our water supply and it results in desertification throughout the entire earth. The film shows how people in more industrialized nations typically take water for granted, while others in less industrialized nations have to fight for every drop.
Water is essential to life. By being so important it is crucial to keep it maintained and preserved. Our water supply is affected by environmental, economic, and legal issues. In Oklahoma water is very sacred to its people especially to Native Americans. Both Choctaw and Chickasaw nations are suing the state of Oklahoma for the regulatory authority over Sardis Lake and the water resources it holds. The Choctaw and Chickasaw nations deserve the rights over Sardis Lake because it is their main water supply and they own the rights through the treaty of the Dancing Rabbit Creek of 1830.
“How can you buy or sell the sky-the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. Yet we do not own the freshness of air or the sparkle of the water. How can you buy them from us? We will decide in our time” (Chief Seattle: 1855). In the Documentary “Flow – for the love of water” it visualizes the global crisis we face on Mother’s Earth as it pertains to the diminishing of fresh water. The Documentary portrays along with the help of experts that this global crises is affecting each and every one of us in today’s society including animals. The film shows us that water is constantly being wasted, polluted, and privatized by big co operations. Prime examples of these greedy companies were mentioned in the film such as Nestle, Thames, Suez, Vivendi, Coca Cola and Pepsi.
This paper will answer the question, is it ethical to use fresh water as a political or military good? As water decreases in availability in the future, fresh water will be used as a political and military good more and more. Water is one of the few fundamental elements needed to sustain human life. As conflicts arise in the water strained areas of the world, it will be very enticing for one group to hold their opponents water hostage. Without access to fresh water the opponents would have no chance of winning a war and would have to give in to the first group’s demands.
In our generation of new technologies and high civilization it is hard to believe that our World is in Water crisis. This crisis is affecting not only low-developed parts of the world but also it affects high-developed countries, about one third of the humanity suffers from the scarcity of water (Molden 2010). One of the main causes of it is overpopulation. In increasing water demand water sources which we have now are not able to renew themselves. Another factor of water scarcity is not economized water consumption. Nowadays most of countries are beginning to realize that solving the problem of scarcity of water is very crucial. One of them is Mexico where water shortage is the national problem.
... the water from seas. It appears that the better pace against the water scarcity ought to be every person’s economy in every-day living.
Freshwater is quite scarce, but it is even scarcer than one might think: about seventy percent of all freshwater is frozen in the icecaps of Antarctica and Greenland and is unavailable to humans. Most of the remainder is present as soil moisture or lies in deep underground aquifers as groundwater. It is not economically feasible to extract this waster for use as drinking water. This leaves less than one percent of the world’s fresh water that is available to humans. It includes the water found in lakes, reservoirs, groundwater that is shallow enough to be tapped at an affordable cost. These freshwater sources are the only sources that are frequently replenished by rain and snowfall, and therefore are renewable. At the current rates of consumption, however, this supply of fresh water will not last. Pollution and contamination of freshwater sources exacerbate the problem, further reducing the amount of freshwater available for human consumption. Something must be done if humans want to even survive in the near future: the lack of clean drinking water is already the number one cause of disease in the world today. The first step is worldwide awareness of the water crisis: governments and the citizens they govern worldwide need to know about this problem and be actively involved in solving this problem.
One main causes of water scarcity is water mismanagement worldwide. Water mismanagement has become a crisis of governance that will impact heavily ...
Have you ever experienced water shortage? Have you ever paid to access public areas? Have you ever seen a brown river? Welcome to Lebanon. “Thousands have lived without love, none without water” (Auden, 1940). The genuine predicament lies in the mismanagement of the water resources, not in the amount of available water in Lebanon. As the international population is growing, the need for water is increasing at the same rate. Therefore, it is essential to manage the remaining resources rationally for the better of the international community. The epidemic of neglecting the eminence of water in Lebanon is best illustrated when it comes to water pollution, lack of water conservation methods, and unjust beach dredging. On the other hand, this significant issue could be resolved by the collaborative efforts of the Lebanese society and authority.
As of this year, nearly 1.1 billion people live without clean drinking water and 2.6 billion live without adequate water sanitation. The McDonald's down the street, however, will sell you a 1/3 pounder burger for only 150 gallons. Changes in lifestyle can easily reduce this number and help not only save water, but money as well. Currently, with our diminishing water supply, one of the main goals of humanitarian organizations is ensuring that everyone has the right and equality to water. With global access to water, it reduces the responsibility for political tension between countries fighting to literally stay alive.