Comments on: Governing water, governing ourselves

By: Maria Lavis

Maria Lavis — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 07:38:26 +0000

Hey Raul,
This is a thorny topic I think because of the necessity of water to life. We DO commodify food, which is also necessary, and have done so for millenia. Water is a slight rung higher on the list of human needs for survival. Would we also commodify air? Consider if air became so polluted it was unbreathable, then would clean air become a commodity?

I tend to come from the mind set (the BC mind set) that water should be free to the people, but when you transpose that idea to areas of drought and scarcity, then you run into trouble. Who pays for the transport, containers, warehousing etc? Resources are not equally spread, and that is the basis of the trade of food and other resources.

I think that free water should actually go hand in hand with the end poverty now and no mouth goes unfed movements. Yet, much harder to do in practice than in theory.

Thanks for the stimulating post.

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By: Raul

Raul — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 03:13:40 +0000

@ Nomade Moderne – I am not against commodification of water in and of itself, but what really worries me is the increasing degree to which privatization is making water not only a resource, but also a commodity and to a large extent, a political resource. In India, entire villages enter in conflict over shared water bodies. I find it scary that a natural resource becomes a political resource and I’m worried about water wars in a not-so-distant future.

Privatization does help the consumer realize the costs of wasting water, that I do agree with

By: Nomade Moderne

Nomade Moderne — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:43:56 +0000

Great post, but let me play devil’s advocate for a moment. You post seems to imply that commodification of water is wrong. At the same time you state: “Given the investment and capital costs that need to be covered in order to provide groundwater for drinking purposes, I would imagine that people would be cognizant of water scarcity and avoid increasing demand on water reserves, both by conserving water and by recycling grey water.”

If we want people to realize water is scarce and conserve it, doesn’t that mean that we *need* to treat it as a commodity. One could argue that commodification of water is exactly what is needed to get people to see its value and feel the economic impact of wasting it. Within that context one could then argue whether the private sector or public sector (regulated) can best provide that commodity and how to deal with the issue of providing basic water needs to communities and individuals.

Oh, and I agree with you entirely @Isabella, we all have to do our part to conserve and change our habits. One quick point, however, is that a dishwasher typically uses less water than handwashing. Of course, building the dishwasher takes energy, materials, etc. But from a water conservation point of view, it’s significantly better.

By: Raul

Raul — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:14:00 +0000

@ Isabella – I was SHOCKED to hear that Canada did not accept the UN declaration. Shame on Canada.

@ Arieanna – I think that one of the things we can do (at least as bloggers) is to try and connect what happens in our communities locally to global issues through our writing. That’s one of the reasons why I write these posts, to try and share what I’ve researched and learned.

By: Arieanna

Arieanna — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:12:22 +0000

You’re very right here – in a place like BC, we have absolutely no awareness of global water issues. This is probably the old “have” vs “have not” issue, and our perceptions are guided by that.

How do you think the public can be better educated about global issues like these?

By: isabella mori

isabella mori — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:40:22 +0000

i think this is such an important topic. and it’s interesting (and scary) to think that canada is one of the few countries that did not accept a UN resolution that makes clean drinking water and sanitation a universal right.

without water, we’re cooked. or i guess i should say we bite the dust.

i have to admit that it IS difficult to conserve water when we live in such a lush environment. my only real nods to water conservation are water saving shower heads and a refusal to get a dishwasher. and i have actually experienced problems with water, when i lived in chile: unsafe drinking water gave me typhus, and we spent 10 days in a village where all we could get was about 5 litres of unclean water a day.

and my daughter always snaps at me when she catches me brushing my teeth with the water running. i’m grateful for that, and for her school, which really pushes environmental awareness.