Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Water scarcity speech
Inequalities in wealth and standards of living have always been quite different around the world. With development, this could change. Clean, accessible water is a marker for a town’s standard of living, and countries around the globe have different methods for providing water to their citizens. Water privatization grows more popular globally, and its negative effects can be evaluated in places like Bolivia. In Cochabamba, Bolivia, the Water War gives depth to the world water crisis and how private ownership of water can harm citizens. From this war, we learn that water is destined to be redefined, the distribution of water has to be dealt with on a case by case basis, and the government needs to be compelled to keep themselves or other companies
Corporations attempt to own as much of a commodified resource as possible, and this happened to water when countries define it as a commodity. Corporations buying and selling a finite resource every human needs can cause serious adverse effects. When something is so precious that no one can live without it, companies can easily ruin the lives of people involved, specifically lower income families and poor countries. It is difficult to treat water as a human right as well. Historically, human rights referred to protections ensured and guaranteed to be available, such as life and liberty. These rights are typically to protect citizens from the government or one another. Water does not need to be protected from others, but rather available to all. This statement, however, is too vague to create water regulations. We need to further define availability. In various areas, the government doesn’t provide water, but people can buy or acquire it locally, and it is difficult to decide whether this means water is available there. The best solution would be to define water as available to all for a similar price. Water and its distribution, for these reasons, are much too complicated to fall under a category with other
This forced people unable to acquire their water from local sources to buy cisterns. The other problem is that the privatized water company’s prices needed to be checked by other competing companies and or paired with strict regulations by the government. Since neither happened, the company impoverished already poor communities and competing companies did not drive the price down, because there were no other companies. Whether or not we are receiving our water from private corporations, municipal supplies, or our local co-operative, governments must have a strict plan to regulate the
The case of water reform in Chile is an interesting one. First of all, it allows us to think about a situation where regulatory reforms face political decision-making through the outcome of proposed legislation. Secondly, the case doesn’t deal with lack of political commitment, but rather involves a situation where the government now faces an important question of passing a legislation that directly affects their households – the main question is not whether to privatize, but how to regulate what will be privatized. Finally, it shows us the importance of having a credible and independent regulatory framework in order to have effective reforms.
Maude Barlow’s “Water Incorporated: The Commodification of the World’s Water” gives a voice to a very real, but vastly unknown, issue: the privatization of water. I refer to it as vastly unknown because it wasn’t until this article that I was even aware such a power struggle existed. Barlow first introduces startling statistics, meant to grab the attention of its readers. Once she has your attention, she introduces the “new generation of trade and investment agreements.” (306)
But one can’t look at “water” in a monolithic sense, because not all water is usable for drinking or irrigation. Usable water can be defined, in this instance, as a source that is reliable, consistent, and clean enough to drink or use for irrigation. This includes rivers, lakes, wells, but it does not include oceans or contaminated water. In some circumstances, the water that is at first promising can then become contaminated; water standing in irrigation ditches can become a fertile breeding ground for mosquitoes and other carriers of disease. In addition, the over-use or diversion of water can impact its quality, creating water heavy ...
In the documentary, Blue Gold: World Water Wars, it follows several people and countries world-wide in their fight for fresh water. The film exposes giant corporations as they bully poorer developing countries to privatize their own supply of fresh water. As a result of the privatization, corporations make a hefty profit while the developing countries remain poor. Blue Gold: World Water Wars also highlights the fact that Wall Street investors are going after the desalination process and mass water export schemes. This documentary also shows how people in more developed nations are treating the water with much disregard, and not taking care of our finite supply. We are polluting, damming, and simply wasting our restricted supply of fresh water at an alarming speed. The movie also recognizes that our quick overdevelopment of housing and agriculture puts a large strain on our water supply and it results in desertification throughout the entire earth. The film shows how people in more industrialized nations typically take water for granted, while others in less industrialized nations have to fight for every drop.
Water privatization is putting water rights into private corporations. In developing countries privatization is acceptable but in developed countries water should be left to the public. In the developed countries like the US, France and Europe water is controlled by the public and private companies or corporations. Water remains a function of municipal government in 90% of cities around the US and Suez Environment and Veolia Water are the top two water companies.2 The consensus throughout the US is that water should be the publics responsibility because water in privately owned water facilities is more expensive and in some cases below standards and less desirable.6 People in the US want to keep their water in their hands because they feel better knowing that people like them control and consume the same water as they do and not people who do not. Putting water in the control of private companies has some less desirable effects on the public. These organizations have a profit motive with incentives that cause them to avoid conservation and efficiency measures since profits depend upon volu...
Water is essential to life. By being so important it is crucial to keep it maintained and preserved. Our water supply is affected by environmental, economic, and legal issues. In Oklahoma water is very sacred to its people especially to Native Americans. Both Choctaw and Chickasaw nations are suing the state of Oklahoma for the regulatory authority over Sardis Lake and the water resources it holds. The Choctaw and Chickasaw nations deserve the rights over Sardis Lake because it is their main water supply and they own the rights through the treaty of the Dancing Rabbit Creek of 1830.
The total area of Mexico’s surface is slightly less than 2 million km2 (UNESCO 2006). The population is about 103 million people (Castro and Heller 2009). In the last two decades, as the population of the country has been growing intensively, the demand of water also dramatically increased. According to Armentia and Cisneros, the number of people who don’t have an access to water supply is about 11 million, almost 11% of Mexico’s population (Castro and Heller 2009). But there are far more people who don’t have an access to safe water. Moreover this situation with lack of water is exacerbated by malfunction of sewer systems. But to understand the causes of scarcity of water in Mexico and to evaluate the policy of the government in this sector, it needs to be observed thoroughly.
This is because only a small part of the population, particularly in developing countries, have access to water of acceptable quality. It is estimated that in some countries only 20% of the rural population has water of satisfactory quality. Based on these statistics, it is clear the urgent need for awareness about caring for water use. Almost without realizing it, we are seriously jeopardizing this essential resource, not for us but for our children's children and their generations, aware that in other parts o...
Cuts in essential services. If a government-owned company providing an essential service (such as the water supply) to all citizens is privatized, its new owner(s) could lead to the abandoning of the social obligation to those who are less able to pay, or to regions where this service is unprofitable.
... drinking water such as Bolivia and Ghana. In the documentary, Flow the experience of poor Bolivians was shown. The water corporations provided unclean drinking water that was full of pollutants. The water cost more than the poor could afford. As a result the citizens rioted and protested against the private water company.
People don’t appreciated the many advantages that comes with having clean potable water to use, taking it for granted. A lot of clean useful water is wasted by humans all the time that people don’t care about saving water because they have easy access to it. Clean and safe drinkable water resources are getting scarce as the population grows. The world is facing many problems, but the most important needed to survive, is water. Water is getting low in many countries, therefore habitants are suffering the misfortune of not having the reliable source of clean water. Today many countries are having water shortages; meaning rivers, lakes, streams and groundwater are not enough to rely on for supplying water demands. For example, California is facing a drastic water shortage, the natural water resources are not enough to fulfill their water demands. Water shortage affects the agricultural sector, so as a consequence the price for production
One main causes of water scarcity is water mismanagement worldwide. Water mismanagement has become a crisis of governance that will impact heavily ...
As of this year, nearly 1.1 billion people live without clean drinking water and 2.6 billion live without adequate water sanitation. The McDonald's down the street, however, will sell you a 1/3 pounder burger for only 150 gallons. Changes in lifestyle can easily reduce this number and help not only save water, but money as well. Currently, with our diminishing water supply, one of the main goals of humanitarian organizations is ensuring that everyone has the right and equality to water. With global access to water, it reduces the responsibility for political tension between countries fighting to literally stay alive.
Water is one of the most essential non-renewable natural resources on the Earth. Technically, an un-hydrated human being can live no more than three days. In the United States, people consume water mainly from tap water and bottle water. However, the consumption between these two sources is not even but lean to one side heavily. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, people consume from 240 to over 10000 times more per gallon for bottled water than they usually do for tap water. (NRDC) In addition, according to a survey from US National Library of Medicines, only 17% of the participants prefer to drink tap water exclusively.(US National Library) Compared to the bottled water which is shining like a superstar, tap water is like a diligent worker in the shade, unpopular but useful. The extremely unbalance of bottled water consumption implies that a commonly hold conception exists: bottle water is superior to tap water. In fact, scientific evidence proves that tap water is nothing different than bottle water. More importantly, the excessive consumption of bottled water is an irrational use of resources and creates severe environmental issues.
Less than 1% of the water supply on earth can be used as drinking water.