Water: A Right or Commodity?

For millions of years, the animal kingdom enjoyed access to clean and safe water as a fundamental right necessary for life. However, the right was questioned at the U.N.’s International Conference on Water and the Environment in 1992, when The Dublin Principle declared water an “Economic good” for the first time. A debate exploded as to whether water was a commodity or a right.

The controversy gained momentum when 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 an actively traded commodity on Wall Street. It is bought, sold, and allocated based on supply and demand. Proponents argue that treating it as a commodity encourages efficient allocation and incentivizes investment in water infrastructure and technologies.

The debate continues as scarcity increases due to global warming and population growth. 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.  It wasn’t until 2010 that the United Nations recognized 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.

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 practically free is a dream, for 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. Flint, Michigan, residents have dangerously high lead levels in their bodies and experience various health problems due to a mismanaged water system. In this case, the government caused the crisis by switching their water supply without adding corrosion control to their pipes and then lying about it.  Though not directly connected to Flint’s problems, Nestlé was depleting local wells and wetlands nearby, paying almost nothing to bottle and sell it. Nestlé pumps water from the San Bernardino National Forest for its Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water in California.

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 being necessary for survival. Since the resolution did pass, it became 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 throughout the globe for the water that goes with it. Labeled as the “great water grab by former CEO and Chairman of Nestlé, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, this is especially so in America, Africa, and Asia. JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank increased their water investments, and companies like Northwest Natural Gas and PGE in Oregon, my home state,  have departments devoted to purchasing water rights. Water is purchased to bottle and sell it.

Energy companies use volumes in fracking, and thermoelectric power companies use a significant proportion of public supplies. Agriculture, automotive manufacturing, textile industries, and others that use water to sell their goods have a huge incentive to acquire water rights.  According to the Water Footprint Network, it takes between 180 and 328 gallons of water to produce a 2-liter bottle of soda in the beverage sector, 20 gallons of water to make a pint of beer, and nearly 37 gallons of water to create the ingredients to make a single cup of coffee. Some of the largest water corporations, like Suez and Bechtel, have taken over municipal systems worldwide, which has received much criticism.

After the 2020 heatwave in California, The Chicago Mercantile Exchange allowed farmers, hedge funds, and municipalities to hedge against future water availability, with $1.1 billion in contracts at stake.  The decision put this fundamental human right into 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. With earnings tied to increased costs, they earn a higher rate of return on their investment when they spend more on a system.

Food and Water Watch reports that compared to the average, private utilities charge the typical household 33 percent more for water and 63 percent more for sewer service. In some states, the rates are even higher. They also say that private utilities are less efficient than public utilities, according to an analysis conducted at the University of Barcelona and Cornell University. Given these statistics, 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 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 worth $1.83 billion. What is occurring in Portland has been happening around the globe for the past 20 years.

I hope 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 to “reject absolutely the commodification, privatization and dispossession of water being implemented by states and private sector entities around the world.”

There are other ways to reduce costs and keep it accessible than privatizing water.  Indianapolis, IN, for example, demonstrates that incentivizing businesses and the public can reduce costs. A homeowner can install low-flow bathroom fixtures, install a shower timer, water lawns with efficient irrigation systems, collect it from the roof for non-potable uses, and plant drought-resistant grass. Washing a car at home uses more water than taking it to a car wash. And using a dishwasher can save the average home 5,000 gallons of water and 230 hours of energy a year.

Rather than change the Monopoly board in the future, let’s keep Public Utility districts for the public good.

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 http://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

DSIRE Website. Indianapolis Power & Light – Residential Energy Incentives Program.NC Clean Energy Technology Center. retrieved from https://programs.dsireusa.org/system/program/detail/4854

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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Marilynne Eichinger graduated in anthropology/sociology from Boston University and received a master’s degree in psychology from Michigan State University. Business acumen was learned on the job as founder of the Impression 5 Science Museum in Lansing, MI, President of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland, and publisher of The Museum Tour Catalog, circulating to over a million households annually. She served on many community boards over the years. Eichinger is a Unitarian Lay minister and a member of Community for Earth, an environmental action group. Eichinger authored several books and articles about science museums and youth homelessness. She is the mother of five with grandmother to many children, biologically hers and adopted. Her recent novel, Rightfully Mine: The Water Factor,  received a Firebird International Award for best Dystopian Novel and a Literary Titan Gold Medal for best thriller. The story is a confronting eco-thriller set in Ethiopia, rural U.S. farming communities, and Native American reservations. It is about the manipulations and crimes committed by water companies and the activists willing to fight for their rights.. “Future big wars will not be over oil or land; they will be over water,” writes Michael (Two-feathers) Ray, a Potowatami adviser to the author. The book is available in paperback, ebook, and audio formats.