Water Privatization

Every human in the world relies on water in order to survive. Clean, drinkable water is as necessary to human survival as air. Recently, large corporation such as Nestle and Suez have begun to privatize water and sell it in bottles, marketing it as fresher and cleaner than tap water, in order to make a profit. This privatization is occurring all over the planet, not just in the United States, and has been pushed forward by politicians and the World Bank. Water is now the third most profitable industry in the world worth approximately 400 billion dollars. Water privatization can be very harmful to the people of the world and cause a vast gap in human rights as people of different nations vary in their ability to receive clean, accessible water.

            Many people are against the privatization of water, a good that is typically provided by the government through citizens taxes. By privatizing water, industries are selling water for profit to nations. This is resulting in the world’s poorest nations not being able to provide free, clean water to its citizens, thus destroying the peoples faith in it’s government to  protect them. Frequently, the governments that must charge its people for the use of water are poorer. When these citizens divert their money to water, they are losing their ability to pay for food and shelter. This means that they often use water from lakes and streams that are used for industrial waste, causing them to become sick, and sometimes even die. The United Nations estimates that $30 billion extra dollars a year would be necessary to provide everyone in the world with clean water. Last year alone, the world spent three times that amount of money on bottled water.

            Also, companies in the United States are depleting water sources from local communities by pumping unsustainably. This is destroying local water sources, creating mud pits and sinkholes. Nestle can pump water at approximately 450 gallons per minute, all while not paying for these natural resources. In fact, not only does Nestle not pay for the water that they retrieve from the communities, but rather they actually receive ten million dollars in tax abatements over a ten year time frame. Therefore, not only are they depleting communities of their precious water systems, but they are receiving government money to support these actions. The world's leaders need to combat these problems in order to help regulate some of the environmental and regulatory problems associated with selling a natural resource as valuable and vital as water.