What is your opinion and experience in your country or whether the supply of water falls under concession and should undergone liberalization ??
Oxygen & water are the most essential materials for life. While there are no oxygen meters (so far !), there must be no water meters for household usage. This is done in the United Kingdom. When I was there, there were 2 meters in the houses I lived in: one for electricity & one for gas. I really was surprised that water is free so I asked about it. They told me that the house pays once to get connected to water supply but ,later on, there is no payment for water consumption. I think that only "......" governments either collect money through the public service of a municipality or through private companies as is the case in 3rd world countries (including ours).
Note: the "......" is written by me & NOT by Research Gate. Any dear RG colleague can insert the proper word!
The European citizens' initiative called "Water and drainage are human rights", whose initial aim was to submit to European Commission legislative proposal that would assure that right to water and sanitation is respected as the human right in the same way it is done through the United Nations, succeeded in its efforts. Consequently, the European Commission confirmed the importance of the human right to water and sanitation as being the public good of fundamental importance...
It's water. It's our life. It should by no means be a private product, but public and of UTMOST importance!
Water should be treated as a social and cultural good, a public good, and not primarily as an economic good.
All people, without discrimination, must have the right to enjoy access to safe, affordable, and sufficient water services.
I agree that water is a public resource and should be free. But there is a cost to bring water to our homes and if it is done by a private company I see no problem to be charged for that.
Oxygen & water are the most essential materials for life. While there are no oxygen meters (so far !), there must be no water meters for household usage. This is done in the United Kingdom. When I was there, there were 2 meters in the houses I lived in: one for electricity & one for gas. I really was surprised that water is free so I asked about it. They told me that the house pays once to get connected to water supply but ,later on, there is no payment for water consumption. I think that only "......" governments either collect money through the public service of a municipality or through private companies as is the case in 3rd world countries (including ours).
Note: the "......" is written by me & NOT by Research Gate. Any dear RG colleague can insert the proper word!
Dear @Darko, bottled water market should be liberalized, but drinking water and water supply systems are public goods of the greatest importance. Maybe, we could speak about public-private partnership where Government share will be dominant!
UN did research on what role water could have in the Post-2015 Development Agenda based on their experience and expertise. "...The goal provides an overall framework that is universally applicable, but that responds to particular national circumstances and addresses account costs, benefits and means of implementation. The framework, with a clear set of targets and indicators, can be tailored to the context and priorities of each country. " Reports available for download!
http://www.unwater.org/topics/water-in-the-post-2015-development-agenda/en/
http://www.unwater.org/
"Pursuant to the Concession Agreement dated 15th December 2004 between SYABAS, the State Government of Selangor Darul Ehsan, and the Government, SYABAS was granted a concession for a period of thirty (30) years, commencing on 1st January 2005"
Water supply and sanitation in Malaysia is characterized by numerous achievements. All citizens have access to water supply at affordable tariffs. Water is important in the physical and spiritual (religious) lives of its 30 million citizens. In my state, each household gets 20 cubic meters of free water, since the state govt changed hands. It's partly to encourage prudent sustainable consumption of a precious commodity. Thanks for this question.
http://www.syabas.com.my/corporate/about-us-our-business
I think availability of safe and good quality water to everyone and everywhere without any discrimination is of prime importance. If, government or private agencies charge a bit for making available the same, it is OK.
Thanks. This is a most important question I have been asking myself for some time, and it takes at least 2-3 research papers to answer properly (see for instance my articles ISSUES ON THE ROLE OF EFFICIENT WATER PRICING FOR SUSTAINABLE WATER MANAGEMENT or SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER SUPPLY AND DEMAND)...in my opinion, water supply is a quasi-public good and therefore it is quite hard to be managed sustainably nowadays...market mechanisms should be employed for a sustainable water demand management, but they must be carefully supported with some social policies and tarifs in order to not deprive the poor from a minimum water consumption ...it is a long discussion here that I would love to continue, since have addressed that and wish to see other qualified opinions as well...
Dear Paul, Darko and all, water is essential to life. The only way to survive and ensure that others survive is to collaborate and to share water resources. Malaysia has shared water with Singapore for many years, until the latter became self sufficlent. We cannot afford to be greedy with water, or wish to have too much; because floods are very destructive! The link is about water scarce regions:
'Water scarcity has always formed a aspect of life in the Arabian Peninsula, the Mashrek and Mesopotamia. Historically, communities living in these arid and semi-arid regions always shared the water of rivers, springs and wadis, though this was more out of necessity than idealism. Following the creation of modern nation states in the first half of the 20th century, most of the region’s major rivers crossed political borders and were shared between states.'
http://waterinventory.org/overview/shared-water-resources-western-asia
Dear @Darko, in one of my previous answers I was speaking about water as a public good and the possibility of public-private partnership! There was no comments about.
But now, let me enrich this discussion with some threads which speak about the WATER and how to have it enough! According to @Golam, "Freshwater is the most precious resource on earth (freshwater accounts for only 2.5% where the rest of water is saltwater). However, freshwater is under threat from overuse and pollution that can contribute to the scarcity of this precious resource. Furthermore, the discharge of industrial effluents, and untreated sewage, nutrients from agriculture and release of toxins into lakes, rivers etc. may cause major freshwater pollution thus makes freshwater unusable for human use. Climate change is a new threat and an additional stress on water resources."
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Are_seawater_to_drinking_water_projects_functioning_in_your_country_state_successfully
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Between_tap_water_and_bottled_water_which_water_do_you_prefer_in_the_context_of_your_country
https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_should_be_the_first_action_for_saving_drinking_water_resources_rivers
IMHO, the right to water does not mean that water should be provided free of charge.
I believe that households should pay the costs of water and sanitation. However, as many low income users are unlikely to be able to pay the full costs, different tariffs for high and low users can be implemented (or the poor can be subsided by other means).
Water is priceless and policies should not encourage the waste of our already scarce and precious water resources.
The Governments should take the responsibility of making water available to everyone. In India, water is supplied in almost all the cities by government agencies at a very nominal charge.
Dear Darko,
Water supply for home consumption or irrigation has the attributes of a "public good", although bottled water, has the attributes of a "private good". Running and potable water has positive externalities: it helps to avoid health and sanitary problems, and promotes social welfare.
The question is what do you understand by liberalization?
You have public goods produced and provided by the government, e.g. education, security, health care, but you also have public goods produced by the private sector and provided by the government, e.g. education, or produced and provided by the private sector, e.g. education, health care.
Two conditions for a good or service to be public: it has positive externalities, i.e. has beneficial effects on society and the unit of production differs from the unit of consumption. About the latter, once you have produced one unit, more than one person can consume it without being rival. Economic text books mention some other characteristics for public goods.
The problem with public goods is the problem of common property, early treated by Aristotle in his work "Politics", and extensively covered by many economists. Common property has an "inconsistent system" of economic incentives, as opposed to "private property", which has a consistent one. Dealing with public goods or common property is more complicated and complex than dealing with individual or private property.
It really doesn't matter "who" produces the good or service, the important issue is that the good is provided in efficient terms to the people. According to different cultures and institutional environments, the government or state could produce and provide it.
As an example, in Argentina all public utilities (services) were originally provided during the XIX th century by private firms, most of them British and European: Running water, railways, telephones, tramways, street lights, natural gas, electricity. Then in the 50s they were nationalized and transferred to the National or federal state. They collapsed in the 80s because of its poor quality and privatized in the 90s, and at the beginning of the 2000s, again some were nationalized. In smaller towns and cities, there are cooperatives producing and providing water.
In the province of Mendoza, famous for wine making, there is a consortium that manages irrigating water, under a total full cost approach. And this is the item to analyze: the cost of the service or good. The government can subsidize it if necessary, or provide it for free to low income population. But you need to have an estimate of its cost and so the price to charge for it.
If one company is the only one producing and distributing water, there is a "monopoly", so liberalization will hurt consumers' welfare. Once you have built the running water network, adding a new unit of production is irrelevant, that's why some people call these services "natural monopolies"
Regulators must make sure that there is enough competition. There are many options: the network can be owned by one firm, and the distribution may be done by other firms that compete in term of prices, or the network may be owned by one firm, which is forced to sell the service to other firms producing and distributing water.
In my opinion to decide whether to have a state owned company or a private one, you need to analyze the socio economic and institutional environment. There is no "one size fits all"
Regards,
Justinian Code (Corpus Juris Civilis - Constitutiones principum) named after the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I who had it put together, which is also the first work of its codification of Roman law known as the Corpus Iuris Civilis) the possession of water resources says:"By the law of nature, the following things belong to mankind - the air, running water, the sea, and the sea coast".
The privatization of water in the UK, which was conducted shortly after coming to power of Margaret Thatcher, the result is a drastically worsening water quality and supply, while significantly increasing its cost.
I fully agree dear Eraldo, that we cannot even imagine life without water.
American writer Mark Twain more than a hundred year's, wrote that " Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting." His words are a reflection of the importance which at that time was given water.
Dear @Darko and friends, how great man was Mark Twain! Thanks for mentioning it. I am his fun because of fishing and literature.
Water is running out: How inevitable are international conflicts? Link is attached!
http://www.irinnews.org/indepthmain.aspx?InDepthId=13&ReportId=61029
Friends, here is another thread where the water issue is addressed. I have put 2 responses so far, (Panel 2, 3), to state that water is for SHARING. Should we be developing technologies, but not develop collaborations? What do you think? Soon it will be spring and then summer, some places may get more rain. Should we not harness all the water available? Can we prevent floods? If water isn't a friend, it may be a foe.
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Are_you_willing_to_pay_for_drinking_water_derived_from_sewage
I fully agree with you Eraldo that the right to water and sanitation should be regarded as a human right and ought to be a significant global aim for the future
My dear friends, as we do agree on fact that right to water and sanitation should be regarded as a human right, I have attached some good resources about this issue! Hope it will contribute this fine discussion! "The right to water and sanitation should therefore not remain a right on paper only! It needs to be implemented in full. This means that it should be translated into provision of water and sanitation to all. In the EU-27 still over one million people lack access to improved water or sanitation. On a global scale over 800 million people lack access to water and over 2 billion people lack access to sanitation. The UN General Assembly stressed that states must do everything possible to realize this right for everybody."
http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/human_right_to_water.shtml
http://www.siwi.org/documents/Resources/Policy_Briefs/Policy_Brief_Human_Rights_to_Water_web.pdf
http://www.right2water.eu/news/epsu-calls-implementation-human-right-water-and-sanitation
Vice President of the World Bank, Ismail Serageldin said in 1995 that "the many wars of the twentieth century were about oil, but the conflicts of the 21st century will be about water" (Cooper H. Mary, 1995).
‘Oil Then,’ ‘Water Now’: Another Reason for War in the 21st Century? (Strobe Driver)
http://www.e-ir.info/2015/06/22/oil-then-water-now-another-reason-for-war-in-the-twenty-first-century/
Dear all,
Yes, @ Ljubomir, these are very interesting links.
Regards
Water is an essential element to life. And as all that is essential, it is becoming, increasingly, a product to be sold at the best price. What is my opinion on this? Unfortunately, it does not matter, because the cards were already loops.
Best regards for all.
Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.
W. H. Auden
If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.
~Loren Eiseley
Dear @Markovic, wonderful photos. As far as I can recognize, the first one was Skadar's lake while the other one was a wonderful Tara river, right ?
I went a few times at Brstanovica camp for rafting and for holidays. It would be nice to bring links to this photos, as there is certainly more info and more photos at that web pages, just for the sake of us, the nature lovers.
here is the photo of me and my family during the break at Tara rafting. We do all drink water from clean Tara river.
According to research by Unesco, Croatia ranks 5th in Europe and 42nd in the world in term of the availability of water sources
Plitvice Lakes National Park (CROATIA)
http://www.np-plitvicka-jezera.hr/en/park-management/welcome/
Krka National Park
http://www.np-krka.hr/stranice/krka-national-park/2/en.html
"The national park is a vast and primarily unaltered area of exceptional natural value, including one or more preserved or insignificantly altered ecosystems. The purpose of the park is primarily to serve science, culture, education and recreation, while tourism activities have also been introduced for its visitors. Including the submerged part of the river at the mouth, the Krka River is 72.5 km long, making it the 22nd longest river in Croatia. It springs in the foothills of the Dinara mountain range, 2.5 km northeast of Knin. With its seven waterfalls and a total drop in altitude of 242 m, the Krka is a natural and karst phenomenon. The travertine waterfalls of the Krka River are the fundamental phenomenon of this river..."
Nice remembering dear @Darko. KRKA is wonderful. I hope I will have a chance to visit it again.
River Zrmanja
Zrmanja is typical karstic river in the North Dalmaci (64 km long). The Zrmanja belongs to the group the most beautiful rivers in Europe: clear water, magnificent canyon. Canyon is one of the most beautiful in Europe. Upper flow runs through valley, than through canyon.
Capitalism and the Destruction of Life on Earth: Six Theses on Saving the Humans
“… Between 1950 and 2000 the global human population more than doubled from 2.5 billion to 6 billion. But in these same decades, consumption of major natural resources soared more than sixfold on average, some much more. Natural gas consumption grew nearly twelvefold, bauxite (aluminum ore) fifteenfold. And so on. At current rates, Harvard biologist E.O Wilson says, "half the world's great forests have already been leveled, and half the world's plant and animal species may be gone by the end of this century…"
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/19872-capitalism-and-the-destruction-of-life-on-earth-six-theses-on-saving-the-humans
The European Parliament adopted on Tuesday a report of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety on the monitoring of the European Citizens' Initiative Right2Water (right to water) which is opposed to the privatization of drinking water.
Water is available, in India, in abundance. But, the quality of drinking water is questionable. Rich people can afford to purchase water, but poor can't.
Dear @Darko, the decision of European parliament was the expected one. It is the only possible solution, the sustainable one! I am, personally, against privatization of drinking water resources.
Water is first important essential for life. It should be right to have.
Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.
Lao-Tzu
"Anything else you're interested in is not going to happen if you can't breathe the air and drink the water. Don't sit this one out. Do something. You are by accident of fate alive at an absolutely critical moment in the history of our planet."
Carl Sagan
"Rivers must have been the guides which conducted the footsteps of the first travelers. They are the constant lure, when they flow by our doors, to distant enterprise and adventure, and, by a natural impulse, the dwellers on their banks will at length accompany their currents to the lowlands of the globe, or explore at their invitation the interior of continents."
Henry David Thoreau
"If you could tomorrow morning make water clean in the world, you would have done, in one fell swoop, the best thing you could have done for improving human health by improving environmental quality."
William C. Clark
We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one.
- Jacques Cousteau
water is driving force of all nature.
Leonardo da Vinci
We should not waste it!
For many of us, clean water is so plentiful and readily available that we rarely, if ever, pause to consider what life would be like without it.
Marcus samuelsson
Yes, those who could not face the deficiency of any thing, could not realize the importance.
Water shortage is a serious problem in many parts of the world. We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.
Thomas Fuller
While the amount of freshwater on the planet has remained fairly constant over time—continually recycled through the atmosphere and back into our cups—the population has exploded. This means that every year competition for a clean, copious supply of water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and sustaining life intensifies.
Water scarcity is an abstract concept to many and a stark reality for others. It is the result of myriad environmental, political, economic, and social forces.
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/freshwater-crisis/
"When we save a river, we save a major part of an ecosystem, and we save ourselves as well because of our dependence--physical, economic, spiritual,--on the water and its community of life."
Tim Palmer
Water scarcity already affects every continent. Around 1.2 billion people, or almost one-fifth of the world's population, live in areas of physical scarcity, and 500 million people are approaching this situation. Another 1.6 billion people, or almost one quarter of the world's population, face economic water shortage (where countries lack the necessary infrastructure to take water from rivers and aquifers).
Water scarcity is among the main problems to be faced by many societies and the World in the XXIst century. Water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century, and, although there is no global water scarcity as such, an increasing number of regions are chronically short of water.
Water scarcity is both a natural and a human-made phenomenon. There is enough freshwater on the planet for seven billion people but it is distributed unevenly and too much of it is wasted, polluted and unsustainably managed.
Sources:
Human Development Report 2006. UNDP, 2006
Coping with water scarcity. Challenge of the twenty-first century. UN-Water, FAO, 2007
Hydrologists typically assess scarcity by looking at the population-water equation. An area is experiencing water stress when annual water supplies drop below 1,700 m3 per person. When annual water supplies drop below 1,000 m3 per person, the population faces water scarcity, and below 500 cubic metres "absolute scarcity".
http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/scarcity.shtml
If you want to increase access to clean water, the solution is to increase global wealth, and the consumer power that comes with it.
https://reason.com/blog/2015/09/21/if-pope-francis-wants-to-help-the-poor-h#comment
Water is one of the most basic of all needs -- we cannot live for more than a few days without it. And yet, most people take water for granted. We waste water needlessly and don't realize that clean water is a very limited resource. More than 1 billion people around the world have no access to safe, clean drinking water, and over 2.5 billion do not have adequate sanitation service. Over 2 million people die each year because of unsafe water - and most of them are children!
-- Robert Alan Silverstein
The water crisis is not primarily a matter for planners and engineers. It cannot be addressed merely through technical measures, greater efficiency and capacity expansion. It calls for policy measures first and foremost. It needs what is today called good governance. The struggle to secure a sustainable water policy is one for social change, for economic advancement and social justice. Above all, it calls for the political will to act.
It is no chance matter that the UN has placed the International Year of Freshwater under the responsibility of UNESCO, the specialised agency for culture and education. UNESCO clearly defines how water should be viewed: this precious resource is one of nature's treasures and part of the cultural heritage of mankind. In April of this year UNESCO published for the first time a comprehensive world water development report entitled «Water for People – Water for Life». It states clearly where the main cause of the crisis lies: owing to political inaction, the water shortage in many regions of the world is assuming hitherto unsuspected proportions.
On both sides there is a lack of political will to act. Hence the water crisis. This becomes perfectly clear when we recall what the international community had stated at the first major UN Water Conference in 1977 in Mar del Plata: «All peoples have the right to have access to drinking water in quantities and of a quality equal to their basic needs.» It was then promised that by 2000 every human being would have access to drinking water of good quality and sufficient quantity.
The facts portray a different picture. A few figures should bear this out:
1.4 billion people lack access to clean drinking water.
- 6000 children are dying each day from the consequences of polluted water.
- 3 billion people have no sanitary facilities.
- 840 million people are suffering from hunger and malnutrition. Water and food shortage go hand-in-hand. This has always been so.
http://www.alliancesud.ch/en/policy/climate/water-crisis-cultural-crisis
"Water, the Hub of Life.
Water is its mater and matrix, mother and medium.
Water is the most extraordinary substance!
Practically all its properties are anomolous, which enabled life to use it as building
material for its machinery.
Life is water dancing to the tune of solids."
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
Dear Darko,
Excellent version by Albert Szent-Gyorgyi.
However,
Water is potential item for hydro politics that will intensify in future!
"The reverse osmosis technology is projected to be the fastest growing technology, in the next five years. The residential segment is projected to dominate the point-of-use water treatment systems market application from 2015 to 2020. By device, faucet-mounted filter is projected to have the largest market share during the forecast period..."
"The growing demand for technologically advanced solutions that provide better water treatment and better de-contamination of water and safety features combined with health benefits is expected to drive the market for point-of-use water treatment systems globally. In addition to this, key factors such as robust economic development, growing awareness about the benefits of water treatment, scarcity of clean water, and rapid urbanization are projected to drive the growth in the point-of-use water treatment systems market in the coming years..."
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/point-of-use-water-treatment-systems-market-by-device-technology-application---forecast-to-2020---reportlinker-review-2015-09-29
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/point-of-use-water-treatment-systems-market-by-device-technology-application---forecast-to-2020---reportlinker-review-300151163.html
New Water Technologies to Save the Planet
Membrane chemistry: Membranes, through which water passes to be filtered and purified, are integral to modern water treatment processing. The pores of membranes used in ultrafiltration can be just 10 or 20 nanometres across – 3,000 times finer than a human hair.
Nanotechnology in filtration: According to the World Health Organization, 1.6 million people die each year from diarrhoeal diseases attributable to lack of safe drinking water as well as basic sanitation. Researchers in India have come up with a solution to this perennial problem with a water purification system using nanotechnology.
Wastewater processing: Engineering still has its place, however. Many people living in urban areas, even in advanced economies, still do not have their sewage adequately treated and wastewater is often discharged, untreated, into rivers and estuaries or used as irrigation water.
Intelligent irrigation: Approximately 70% of the world's freshwater is used by the agricultural industry. Applying a more intelligent approach to water management by deploying precision irrigation systems and computer algorithms and modelling is already beginning to bring benefits to farmers in developed countries.
Membrane chemistry: Membranes, through which water passes to be filtered and purified, are integral to modern water treatment processing. The pores of membranes used in ultrafiltration can be just 10 or 20 nanometres across – 3,000 times finer than a human hair
http://www.theguardian.com/sustaina.../new-water-technologies-save-planet
My dear friend @Lijo Francis, the former member of ResearchGate without his will, is an expert in the field.
He is the best post-doc fellow, see link!
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=TVlNsdQAAAAJ&hl=en
http://issuu.com/kaustbeacon/docs/september2015beaconfinal/1?e=4447934%2F30098538
"Water is also one of the four elements, the most beautiful of God's creations. It is both wet and cold, heavy, and with a tendency to descend, and flows with great readiness. It is this the Holy Scripture has in view when it says, "And the darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Water, then, is the most beautiful element and rich in usefulness, and purifies from all filth, and not only from the filth of the body but from that of the soul, if it should have received the grace of the Spirit."
John of Damascus
"We have the ability to provide clean water for every man, woman and child on the Earth. What has been lacking is the collective will to accomplish this. What are we waiting for? This is the commitment we need to make to the world, now."
--- Jean-Michel Cousteau
Over 1 billion people have no access to clean drinking water, and more than 2.9 billion have no access to sanitation services. The reality is that a child dies every eight seconds from drinking contaminated water, and the sanitation trend is getting sharply worse, mostly because of the worldwide drift of the rural peasantry to urban slums.
-- Marq de Villiers
For people and the human community water is not only an existential and biological importance, it is the first condition for the realization of these aspirations. Water supply influenced ups and downs of many nations and civilizations. Water and human skill in dealing with water can be found in the foundations of every successful civilization. The more developed the civilization was, its consumption of water was higher. One of the fundamental aspirations and the driving forces of man is the desire and need to constantly raise the quality of life of the individual, community and the human species. So we can safely say that the relationship between man and water is unbreakable and durable.
Water is particularly used for direct consumption, cooking and farmland irrigation.
There are 4 important principles to guarantee survival and health of everyone:
Water must be available : this means enough quantity for all uses, personal and domestic. The United Nations has estimated that every person needs from 20 to 50 liters of drinking water each day.
Water must be accessible : water, adequate facilities and services must be accessible in the home or nearby. The water, facilities and services must be affordable for all.
Water must be of quality : water must be clean, potable and free of health risks.
Water must be stable and reliable : clean water must be available and accessible in all circumstances (drought, flood that pollutes water, etc
http://www.humanium.org/en/fundamental-rights/water/
If the quantities of fresh water on Earth would be in line with the geographical distribution of the population, the water would be enough for 20 billion of people. At the end of the 20th century more than 40% of the world's population suffered from "water stress" (less than 1,000 m3 of water per person, yearly). It is estimated that today 1.2 billion people (of the 7 billion people on Earth) do not have available sufficient quantities of drinking water
When a country wants television more than they want clean water, they've lost their grip.
--- Lewis Black
"Water, like religion and ideology, has the power to move millions of people. Since the very birth of human civilization, people have moved to settle close to it. People move when there is too little of it. People move when there is too much of it. People journey down it. People write, sing and dance about it. People fight over it. And all people, everywhere and every day, need it."
Mikhail Gorbachev
“Water is fundamental for life and health. The human right to water is indispensable for leading a healthy life in human dignity. It is a pre-requisite to the realization of all other human rights.”
-The United Nation-s Committee on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights, Environment News Service, November 27, 2002
“Multinational companies now run water systems for 7 percent of the world’s population, and analysts say that figure could grow to 17 percent by 2015. Private water management is estimated to be a $200 billion business, and the World Bank, which has encouraged governments to sell off their utilities to reduce public debt, projects it could be worth $1 trillion by 2021. The potential for profits is staggering: in May 2000 Fortune magazine predicted that water is about to become ‘one of the world’s great business opportunities’, and that ‘it promises to be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th.’”
—John Louma, “Water Thieves,” The Ecologist, March 2004
This 2014 file photo shows the first stone to mark the start of the construction of a major seawater desalination plant, which has a capacity of 6000 m3 of water per day, in the central Gaza Strip. --- MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images
https://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2015-10-07/searching-for-solutions-to-world-water-scarcity
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