In the horizon: Water war : Ramesh Shrestha

Oil of the 21st century

Fortune magazine defined Water as the ‘Oil of the 21st century’. Water has also joined the ranks of Gold and Oil in the Wall Street trading floor in the US since October 2020. The pet-name of water among the investors is ‘Blue Gold’. As the US is a trend setter in lifestyle and business, other countries are likely to follow suit on disastrous water trading. Water being the most basic element for human survival, how to address this contradiction?

Forget gold and oil, Water is second to air for life on Earth. Water scarcity has already impacted several regions with the forecast that two third of the world population could be impacted by severe water shortage by 2025 (Earth.org). According to the WHO nearly 2 billion people are already living in water-stressed countries. Of them, more than half a billion people depend on surface water on a daily basis, exposing children to serious health risks (Water Aid). Water shortage is likely to become a question of survival in many water-stressed countries (Figure).

Water as a public good

Drinking water is provided by the government as a public service, with minimum cost for the users. Sadly, drinking water began to be commercialised steadily since early 1990s together with privatisation of other essential public services such as education and health care. While drinking water may never be fully privatised (who knows?) but with commercialisation of water, water no longer seems like a public good. There are 195 brands of bottled water marketed internationally. In addition, there are literally thousands of other local brands of bottled water, marketed locally in developing countries for which quality assurance may never be guaranteed.

In Paris there is a Water Bar (Water Bar, 213 Rue Saint-Honoré, 75001 Paris, France) where you can taste and buy bottled water from more than 100 internationally traded bottled water with fancy packaging. Well, it is a luxury for some but for millions of people in many cities and towns in developing countries there are no such fairy tale stories. Numerous cities and towns in many developing countries have to rely on wells or bottled water with prices that they can barely afford. The bottled water in average costs 240 times compared to the municipality supplied tap water.
Water as a tradable good

Given the importance of water for the survival of human beings, and if access to water really is human rights, should the water be left in the hands of the private sector whose sole interest is the profit? Privatising water will simply ensure corporate profit and contradicts with the environmental protection agenda and proposal of universal access. The quality of education in public schools and the quality of health care in public health institutions has deteriorated considerably while our leaders continue to lament about the right to health and right to education. These are the outcomes of privatising education and health services. We still have time to take the right approach not to follow the same footsteps for drinking water. One reason given by the proponents of privatising water is that as the cost of water will rise with privatisation, people will not waste water! How oxymoronic is this?

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund are not interested in investing in the water sector unless it is privatised (possibly to avoid default?). The burden of providing universal access to safe drinking water thus is solely on the governments’ shoulder with their own resources. It is not an impossible task; it is a matter of motivation and political choice.

Challenge for the government

According to the National Geographic explorers only about 2.5% of global water is considered fresh water of which less than 1% is fit for human use (drinking, cooking, bathing and other domestic use). Water bottling plants, soft drink businesses and other industries (such as textile) extract unlimited amounts of underground reserves of water and tap natural springs. Of course, underground water is also replenished naturally through several natural mechanisms. But we have arrived at a point where we are extracting more than replenishing in most regions of the world.

As and when the trading in water is formalised and grows in coming decades, the bottling companies and soft drink manufacturers will play a major role in deciding national policies on water. Since water is essential for survival with impacts on health and very survival of people what should the governments do? There are three questions that must be addressed by the governments to prevent the looming water crisis in water stressed countries but relevant for other countries too. They are as follows:

∙ Should the governments put a cap on how much water can be extracted by water bottling companies and soft drink manufacturers? It would mean battling with the international giants like Coca Cola, Pepsi and Nestle.

∙ Would it be possible for an outright ban on local production of soft drinks in countries where water stress is high to very high?

∙ Would it be possible for governments to start public-private partnership ventures (non-profit) for drinking water industries in mid to high water stressed countries to expand municipal water distribution networks?

It is up to the governments to take necessary actions to protect water resources from excessive extraction by the industries to avoid future water crises. It has to be addressed as management of water distribution for survival rather than a commodity trade.

Water stressed countries by 2040 according to the World Resource Institute.

Ramesh Shrestha can be contacted via: ramesh.chauni@gmail.com

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