Water is the king of commodities and there’s plenty of it, enough to solve the planet’s water problems but only if governments create markets, says Investor’s Business Daily (IBD).
For water markets to work, governments must designate the resource as an economic good, a commodity that can be bought and sold, not something that belongs to the public. To do so, property rights governing water sources must be established.
Turning water into a market commodity won’t be politically easy. Some would say it’s impossible, given the many governments that have an aversion to markets:
“Countries that have redefined and traded water rights have seen water access for the rural poor increase in volume and fall in price,” American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Roger Bate writes in Australia’s Courier Mail. “All users . . . have seen supplies increase in reliability and quality with infrastructural improvements.”
Source: Editorial, Open The Spigots, Investor’s Business Daily, August 18, 2006.
For text (subscription required): http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=240705195396119
For more on Drinking Water: http://eteam.ncpa.org/issues/?c=drinking-water
For more on Environment: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=31
FMF Policy Bulletin/ 22 August 2006
