SEE All. Like the owl, watch and see what is going on in your community so you know how to vote and take action.
Water: A Right or Commodity?
For millions of years, the animal kingdom treated access to clean and safe water as a For millions of years, the animal kingdom treated access to clean and safe water as a fundamental right necessary for life. In 2010, the United Nations recognized the right to water and sanitation as essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights. It took twenty years to get there. Advocates for this perspective believe that water should be managed as a public good, ensuring equitable access for all, regardless of ability to pay.
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 traded for the first time. The debate of whether it was a commodity or not 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. The main players were Vivendi, Suez, and food procession conglomerates like Nestlé. Since then, water has been one of the most actively traded commodities on Wall Street. 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 as water scarcity increases due to global warming and population growth. We are no longer a hunter-gatherer society wandering the globe, and stopping at freshwater holes. Nor are we farmers with guaranteed rights to collect water from clean-flowing streams and rivers on our properites. 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 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 to our kitchens and bathrooms for practically free is a dream, but with rates so high, an increasing number of residents can’t pay their water bills. 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.
Flint, Michigan, residents have dangerously high lead levels in their bodies and experience various health problems due to a mismanaged water system. Though not directly connected to Flint’s problems, Nestlé has been depleting local wells and wetlands nearby, paying almost nothing to bottle and sell it. In California, Nestlé pumps water from the San Bernardino National Forest for its Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water.
Forty-four nations, including the United States, abstained from the U.N.’s resolution affirming the human right to clean drinking water and sanitation.
The U.S. argued that water was not a human right despite its being necessary for survival. Since it passed, the resolution is a legally binding international law stating that water and sanitation must be sufficient, safe, acceptable, accessible, and affordable (not more than three percent of a household’s income). Unfortunately, this laudable goal is failing, with the attempt to gain private water rights growing.
Extensive land purchases are being made in America, Africa, and Asia for the water that goes with it. It has been labeled as the “great water grab.” JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank increased their water investments and companies like Northwest Natural Gas and PGE in Oregon have departments devoted to purchasing water rights. Companies that bottle and sell water, energy companies involved in fracking, and industries that use water to sell their goods have a huge incentive to acquire water rights. Some of the largest water corporations, like Suez and Bechtel, have taken over municipal systems worldwide to much criticism.
After the 2020 heatwave in California, The Chicago Mercantile Exchange allowed farmers, hedge funds, and municipalities to begin hedging against future water availability, with $1.1 billion in contracts at stake. This put a basic human right in the hands of financial institutions and investors. Rather than protecting the environment and ensuring universal access at a reasonable cost, privatizing water guarantees corporate profits will go to private companies. Activist David Hall studies past examples of privatization. A common example is what Guinea experienced where prices became seven times higher than those of their neighbors. On average, communities with privatized utilities have bills that are 59 percent higher than those with public providers. Given this statistic, why would any community let its PUD slide into public-private arrangements that raise rates?
Change is happening slowly due to rising alarm. Last year, U.N. experts concurred that water should be managed as a common good and urged the United States to “ensure that human rights and water defenders be placed at the core of the UN-Water Conference.” They convened a three-day session to consider the global water situation for the first time in 50 years.
In my area, The Portland Utility Board (PUB) serves as a community-based advisory board for the Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) and the Portland Water Bureau (PWB). In 1999, Portland employees provided eighty-five percent of its drinking water and 95 percent of wastewater treatment. Since then, the market began opening up to private providers for capital to repair or replace aging infrastructure without going to the public for bond approvals. In 2023, The Portland Water Bureau seated twenty-eight contract teams for projects worth $1.83 billion.
My hope is that our cities will end this practice. Private companies are difficult to monitor, and their goal to make money for shareholders is passed on to consumers. I agree with the Indigenous nations that signed an agreement “reject absolutely the commodification, privatization and dispossession of water being implemented by states and private sector entities around the world.”
The way Indianapolis shows us that with proper incentives, public employees can be as competitive as outside vendors was an example in the City Club of Portland Report on Privatization of Government Services. Non-profit entities can manage as well as for-profit neighbors. Rather than changing the Monopoly board going forward, let’s continue to keep Public Utility districts government-owned for the public good.
Get ready for Earth Day and help launch The Water Factor in mid-April and write a review. It will first be available online in paperback, ebook, and audio versions and in bookstores by August.
References:
Burtka, A. & Montgomery, W. (2018) A right to water – Is water a human right or a commodity? ERB INSTITUTE, University of Michigan. Retrieved from https://erb.umich.edu/2018/05/30/a-right-to-water-is-water-a-human-right-or-a-commodity/#:~:text
Statements and Speeches (2023) Water is a common good, not a commodity: UN experts. United Nations Human Rights. Retrieved from https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2023/03/water-common-good-not-commodity-un-experts
Shukla, N. (2021) Water is Now Being Traded as a Commodity Amid Fear of Scarcity. Earth Org.Retrieved from https://earth.org/water-trade/
DiFelice. M. & Grant, M. (2022) We Have a Right to Water. The U.S. has yet to Deliver. Food & Water Watch. retrieved from www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2022/09/15/we-have-a-right-to-water-the-u-s-has-not-delivered/
The City Club of Portland (1990) Privatization of Government Services. Report. Retrieved. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1492&context=oscdl_cityclub
Newcomb, T. (2023) Portland, Ore., Picks Contractors for $1.8 B in Water Projects ENRNOrthwest. retrieved from https://www.enr.com/articles/56809-portland-ore-picks-contractors-for-18b-in-water-projects
Website. Historic UN 2023 Water Conference generates transformative commitments. United Nation. Retrieved from https://www.unwater.org/news/historic-un-2023-water-conference-generates-transformative-commitments
Website. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ DECLARATION FOR THE 2023 UNITED NATIONS WATER CONFERENCE. Retrieved from https://www.iitc.org/indigenous-peoples-declaration-for-the-2023-united-nations-water-conference/
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