A U.N. Treaty on the Human Right to Water?

[struggle4progress]

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 7 (IPS) - The United Nations has warned that by 2025, about 1.8 billion people will live in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity.

If that's the gloomy scenario, says Kathryn Mulvey, executive director of Corporate Accountability International, then the upcoming U.N. Millennium Summit should explore the potential for an international treaty to protect the human right to water. <snip>

She said that water should be freely available as a human right but it is becoming increasingly scarce because big business is stepping in and turning water into a profit-driven industry, inflating the price of water beyond the reach of those who need it most.

The summit, which is to be attended by over 170 world leaders and scheduled to take place Sep. 14-16, is expected to review the progress made in relation to the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the U.N. General Assembly back in September 2000. The deadline to reach the goals is 2015. <snip>

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30171

[dcfirefighter]

1. capitalism & the free market

work great for reproduceable things, not so well for nature's wealth.
The error is in treating natural wealth like capital.

I am all for the state ownership of water - currently in the constitutions of several states.

Water rights aught to be periodically auctioned, with the proceeds going to the state as representative of the people. Can't have a monopoly this way.