Water, water, not everywhere?

The editors of PLoS Medicine want to declare a basic human right to clean water. I buy this as a rhetorical strategy and in particular as an implicit critique of the neoliberal approach to global development which has caused such devastation in the world. Yes, yes, those neoconservatives were just awful weren't they, but they share a lot more with neoliberals than just the prefix.

Specifically, we have had a consensus in the capitalist capitals since the time of Ronald Reagan (and not, by the way, including Nixon) that the path out of poverty for the great mass of humanity went through shriveling of government investment in social welfare and human development, and turning loose the magic of private enterprise and free markets. You can read all about it here, thanks to Global Issues.

In the case of water, specifically, this meant alienation of the public domain -- handing over what had been provided freely by nature to private ownership -- and requiring people to pay money which hundreds of millions of them did not have to acquire one of life's most basic necessities. According to the WHO, providing clean water to everyone would prevent 6.3% of all deaths worldwide. As I have said here many times, "preventing deaths" is, in itself, a nonsensical metric because, well, we're all going to die, we're all going to die! Yes we are. However, deaths from contaminated water largely affect the young, in particular the very young. They are also the tip of the iceberg of an immense burden of disease -- 9.1% of the global burden, sayeth the WHO, including parastic diseases that destroy the productive potential of young adults.

But simply declaring water to be a "basic human right" doesn't accomplish anything. Rights are only effective when they place enforceable obligations on others. Institutions with the power to deliver clean water must actually be made to do so. This creates immensely complex problems including international conflicts over watercourses and lakes, and demands for infrastructure that poor nations cannot meet. Climate change, with accompanying drought and more rapid evaporation, just makes it harder.

So make sure this very big challenge is also on your list. Petroleum, phosphate, topsoil, water, seafood -- all going, going, gone because of the tragedy of privatizing the commons. We got it horribly wrong.