The Water Factor by Marilynne Eichinger

For millions of years, the animal kingdom treated access to clean and safe water as a fundamental right necessary for life. However, in 1992, at the U.N.’s International Conference on Water and the Environment, the Dublin Principle declared water an “Economic good” for the first time, spurring water to be commodified. The debate of whether it was a commodity or right escalated until corporations took matters into their own hands. In the Hague, 5,700 people gathered at the World Water Forum convened by big business in 2002. The topic was how to benefit from selling water globally. Though U.N. officials, The World Bank, WTO, and 140 governments were non-voting attendees, they were not voting members. Vivendi, Suez, and food procession conglomerates like Nestlé were the main players. Since then, water has been one of Wall Street’s most actively traded commodities. It can be bought, sold, and allocated based on supply and demand. Proponents argue that treating water as a commodity encourages efficient allocation and incentivizes investment in water infrastructure and technologies.

The debate continues with water scarcity increasing due to global warming and an expanding population. We are no longer a hunter-gatherer society wandering the globe, stopping at freshwater holes. Nor are we farmers with guaranteed rights to collect water from clean-flowing streams and rivers on our properties. Today’s access to water revolves around the cost of managing it sustainably and efficiently.

With 89 percent of the U.S. population and 68 percent of the world’s population living in cities, water scarcity is a pressing issue made worse by automotive runoff, household contaminants, industrial waste, and pesticides that pollute waterways. Wishing for filtered water to come through our faucets for free is a dream, but many residents can’t pay their water bills at rates as high as they are. In Detroit, tens of thousands of households had their water shut off in 2014 because they couldn’t pay their bills. One mother asked a U.N. representative how he could deny a person the right to use a toilet.

The U.N. finally acted in 2010 by recognizing the right to water and sanitation as essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights. Advocates for this perspective believe that water should be managed as a public good, ensuring equitable access for all, regardless of ability to pay.