Question

Let's have a debate on water!!

Answer 1

save water save life

Answer 2

hi dear here is the answer

Water is a resource subject to supply and demand, and so should be treated as an economic good. It may fall freely from the skies, but it has to be collected, managed, processed and supplied through an expensive system of reservoirs, channels, processing plants and pipes. Dirty water and human waste also have to be removed and treated in sanitation systems.


Water is a natural resource, God-given and free as it falls from the sky. It is also essential to all life, including humanity. Lack of good water is the biggest single factor in disease and ill health in the developing world, and without it people cannot grow crops to support themselves. Pollution of water sources or over-extraction has a very damaging environmental impact. For all these reasons water is special and should be seen as a common good, part of the responsibility of governments to their people. Access to clean water is a human right, not something to be traded away or withheld on grounds of cost.


When water is not treated as an economic good, it is wasted. On a domestic level, unmetered access to water means that consumers do not pay according to the quantity they use and so they will use it wastefully. At a national level, subsidised water for farmers and industry encourages wasteful methods and inappropriate crops (e.g. growing water-hungry cotton in California or Central Asia, both naturally areas of semi-desert), often with a damaging impact upon the environment. Pricing water according to its true cost would promote more efficient and environmentally-friendly practices, e.g. the use of drip-irrigation or dry farming in agriculture.

Demand for water increases with population growth, so it does not respond to market signals in the way other resources do. Rich consumers in the developed world also waste water through extravagant use of luxuries such as garden sprinklers, swimming pools, lush golf courses, etc. - a problem which will get worse as income inequality increases, both between and within countries. Demand management is needed to prevent waste and to ensure access for all, including the poor, something which pricing water in a purely economic way will not achieve. This is a job for governments, accountable to their people, not for private companies



Problems of water supply need to be addressed with huge investment, particularly in the developing world where many people have no access to decent fresh water. Even in the developed world, much water (up to 50% in Canada) is wasted through leaks in pipes and ageing infrastructure. The public sector has failed to provide the money for this investment so private involvement is essential. For this investment to be attractive to the private sector, water companies must be allowed to make a profit through realistic water charges that reflect the costs of supply. Issues of quality, equity and environmental standards can be handled through effective regulation.