Platform: Water posted by Ben

Why is water important and what role should government play in regulating it?

Water is a primary necessity for the continuation of life. Key elements of the issue include access for public, private, and corporate consumption, use of nonrenewable sources (like underground aquifers), impact of climate change on water availability, and strongly related issues like disease, pollution, and competing market-based economic theories.

First and foremost, without access to clean, plentiful water, the ability of anyone to lead a life of even basic sustenance is greatly reduced. Lack of water in third world countries has contributed directly to famine situations, not only through lack of drinking water but also through its key impact on farming success. Even in the United States, however, the necessity of water regulation, especially in the Southwest, has often made the major difference between the success and failure of entire communities. Furthermore, the Southwest, unable to supply its water needs solely through the in-demand Colorado River, has subsidized its consumption by draining non-renewable underground aquifers at an accelerated rate. When those aquifers dry up, and when communities farther down the Colorado are more explicitly held hostage by the demands of farmers and cities who depend on the Colorado nearer to its source, even current high levels of government regulation may not be enough to prevent massive shortages that will threaten not only California's massive corporate farms, but the lives of millions of residents.

One solution repeatedly presented by conservative politicians is to privatize water management. Thanks to economic blackmail by the World Bank, utilities corporations have been able to privatize water access in a number of third world countries, with unilaterally disastrous results. How could free market forces create such a mess? It's easy. The World Bank demands that countries with outstanding loans sell their utilities to private corporations. When the corporations take over, their primary goal, as always, is to generate profit. The most effective way to generate profit is to raise prices and cut costs, preferably on things which people view as necessities. The same pattern has been repeated every time. A private company takes over the utility. They cut staff. They allow systems to fall into disrepair. As access to water decreases, demand rises, and with it prices. Entire countries have been put into starvation situations because utilities can make more money in the short term by choking the supply of what ought to be plentiful. (I'll come back to this theme when discussing energy.) While these actions may follow the model of free market economics, their results aren't just criminal; they are abuses of power that destroy job markets, cause inflation, and literally kill thousands.

Along with questions of basic access to water, we have to ask what quality of water people are receiving. For example, Nestlé was the subject of an extended boycott because of its baby formula policies in third world countries. With the ostensible reason of doing charity, the company was providing free formula to mothers in the third world. Why could that possibly have been an issue? Setting aside the differences between breast milk and formula in infant development, all of the mothers who began using the formula needed an additional ingredient: water. And it turns out that babies are even more vulnerable to polluted water than adults. Without access to clean water, infant death rates in areas where Nestlé was providing its formula skyrocketed. But did Nestlé cease its program of formula distribution? Of course not. They were expanding their market and getting some great PR back in the States. Now, it can be argued that Nestlé was not killing these infants directly, but regardless of how you view their actions, one thing is clear. People in those countries only had access to water that was slowly poisoning them.

Unfortunately, the situation in the United States is heading in a direction that may not be much better. Even in his first few months in office, President Bush was pushing to allow higher levels of mercury in drinking water. Regulations involving water safety are being replaced at an unprecedented rate with voluntary, unenforceable programs that favor polluters over the public health. Remember the Colorado river? By the time it reaches its lower stretches, its waters have been cycled through countless farms, picking up pollutants, chemical fertilizers, and who knows what else. And the specter of utilities privitization continues to demand its due from Congress and the White House.

What does this mean for Americans? Quite simply, if we allow private interests to control the water supply, we risk increased disease, pollution, shortages, and impossibly high prices. If we allow industry to self-regulate their emissions, which the Orwellian 'Clean Skies' initiative will be happy to facilitate, we create a system where poisoning the public is considered a calculable cost of doing business, rather than a moral outrage. The passage of so-called 'tort reform', which caps damages that corporations can be liable for in court, means that these same companies who are gaining the freedom to pollute with impunity can calculate potential losses from, say, a class-action lawsuit over infants killed by bad water, set that money aside, and continue to poison the public. Make no mistake, this is a concentrated and intentional attempt by those in power to create a future where corporations have the power to kill without punishment, to pollute, to fix prices (remember Enron?), and to put the interests of profit-making ahead of anything and everything else. And if you believe that even business isn't that callous, just look at the results of utilities privitization not only in the third world (by first world companies), but to some extent in Great Britain.

Dennis Kucinich outlines the following ten principles of water reform, which I strongly endorse. For more information about his reasoning, especially on issues that I haven't addressed here, follow this link.

1. All water shall be considered to be forever in the public domain.
2. It shall be the duty of each nation to provide accessible, affordable drinking water to its peoples.
3. There shall be public ownership of drinking water systems, subject to municipal control.
4. Wealthy nations shall provide poor nations with the means to obtain water for survival.
5. Water shall be protected from commoditization and exempted from all trade agreements.
6. Water privatization shall not be a condition of debt restructuring, loan renewal or loan forgiveness.
7. Governments shall use their powers to prevent private aggregation of water rights.
8. Water shall be conserved through sustainable agriculture and encouraging plant-based diets.
9. Water resources shall be protected from pollution.
10. Our children should be educated about the essential nature of water for maintaining life.

Sadly, it is highly unlikely that any of these reforms will pass under the wandering eyes of the Bush administration, nor will any private corporations enact them. That means that reform must come from the public. Furthermore, we must to vigilant and quick to act when utilities in our communities are offered for sale to private interests.

Remember, when your access to water is controlled by a corporation, their primary responsibility is to the bottom line, not to your health. And if you get sick because of their practices, even the courts may not be able to help you seek justice. After all, it's just part of the cost of doing business.