The commodification of water: leaving us high and dry?

Who owns water? Should anybody own it? Is water a human need or a human right? As the world’s water crisis worsens, can private sector management come to the rescue – or is fresh water in danger of becoming big business and a preserve of the wealthy?

A book from the Council of Canadians and the Polaris Institute takes a sobering look at the growing scarcity of fresh water and argues that the commodification of water is wrong on ethical, environmental and social grounds. It tells of how humanity is polluting, diverting and depleting the wellspring of life at a startling rate. The authors warn that if we do not promote equity and cherish water as a global commons, two-thirds of humanity may be living with severe water shortages by 2025.

With minimal public debate, the private sector has positioned itself to profit from what it considers blue gold. There are now ten major corporate players delivering services to more than 200 million customers in 150 countries. The water industry’s annual profits of around US $1 trillion exceed those of the pharmaceutical industry and equal 40 per cent of those of the oil sector. Developing countries are giving in to pressure from the World Bank and IMF to abandon their public water delivery systems and to contract with the water giants in order to be eligible for debt relief.

The unregulated bottled water industry is also booming. In 2001 some 90 billion litres of bottled water were sold in non-reusable plastic containers, netting profits of US $22 billion to this highly polluting industry. Bottled water companies are engaged in a constant search for new water supplies to feed an insatiable demand. In rural communities all over the world, corporate interests are buying up farms, indigenous lands, wilderness tracts and whole water systems, then moving on when sources are depleted.

Evidence is presented that:

• The privatisation of water has been accompanied by large profits, higher prices, cut-offs to customers who cannot pay, lack of transparency, reduced water quality, bribery and corruption.
• Trade agreements are robbing governments of their control over domestic water supplies: with water now classified as a good, global trade institutions give transnational corporations unprecedented access to the freshwater resources of signatory countries.
• The WTO opens the door to the commercial export of water by prohibiting the use of export controls of any ‘good for any purpose’.
• There is potential for quotas or bans on the export of water imposed for environmental reasons to be challenged as a form of protectionism.

The authors argue that a water-secure future requires:

• a global water convention that would create an international body of law to protect the world’s water heritage based on the twin cornerstones of conservation and equity
• a guaranteed water lifeline  – at least 25 litres of free, clean water every day for every person – as an inalienable political and social right
• national water protection acts and local participatory water governance councils with powers to reclaim and preserve freshwater systems
• exemptions for water from international trade and investment regimes
• an end to World Bank and IMF-enforced water privatisations
• higher water fees for agribusiness and industry.

Source(s):
‘Blue gold: the battle against corporate theft of the world’s water’, Earthscan, by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke, October 2002
Sample chapters are online: Chapter 5 'Global Water Lords' Full document.
Chapter 6 'Emergent Water Cartel' Full document.

id21 Research Highlight: 20 August 2003

Further Information:
Maude Barlow
The Council of Canadians
502-151 Slater Street
Ottawa, ON
K1P 5H3
Canada

Tel: +1 613 233 2773 or +1 800 387 7177
Fax: +1 613 233 6776
Contact the contributor: mbarlow@canadians.org

Contact the contributor: inquiries@canadians.org

The Council of Canadians

Tony Clarke
Polaris Institute
312 Cooper Street
Ottawa ON
Canada
K2P 0G7

Tel: +1 613 237 1717
Fax: +1 613 237 3359
Contact the contributor: polarisinstitute@on.aibn.com

Polaris Institute, Canada

Other related links:
'Water without frontiers: improved management of transboundary water resources'

'Distinguishing rhetoric from reality: the search for common ground in water and sanitation'

'Tapping the market. Can private enterprise supply water to the poor?' Insights #37

See id21's links on water and public-private partnerships

'Water and sanitation goals: Is progress in the pipeline?' Insights #45

'Bridging troubled waters. How to agree on shared resources despite environmental change'