The Right to Clean Water Essay Example

The Right to Clean Water Essay Example The Right to Clean Water Essay The Right to Clean Water Essay he Right to Access Clean Water Only 2% of earth’s water is available for human consumption because 98% of the earth’s water is frozen in ice caps, flowing in the ocean, and even in animal bodies, etc. More than a billion people have no decent water supply, adding to that about 2. 4 billion people do not have proper sanitation; therefore more than 60% of global illness is linked to the lack of healthy water. Water is a natural source of nature and access to clean water should not be used as a traded or withheld good in economic markets. While a developed country is using water to water their gardens, golf courses and swimming in their pools, the problem only gets worse because of income inequality increases between the countries. South Africa specifically has been having many problems when it comes to water privatization. Everything needs water, therefore it should be a common good shared by everyone and is the responsibility of governments to help their people access clean water and should not be looked upon as opportunities to make money. This problem is for the government who are held responsible for their people and not private companies around the world who want to make money of whatever they can. Water is an essential source of life, but there are categories of water which includes fresh or salt water. Most of earth’s land roaming animals needs fresh water for survival, including 6. 7 billion people and their crops. The lack of fresh water makes a chain reaction of bad factors like illness, bad crops and unsanitary living conditions. Without water people cannot water their crops which leads to hunger, then bad health, and soon after illnesses that prevents them from working and going to school. It is easy to see why water is treated as an economic good because it has to be collected, managed, processed and supplied; it is a very expensive process that water goes through before it is clean and can be giving out to people to drink. Most private companies will provide water for a commercial return, but not without investment that will be much higher than publicly funded. The institute’s fear that private, bottom-line-driven companies will not supply water to those who cannot afford to pay high prices is nevertheless clearly stated: ‘The water needs of the poor should not be left in the hands of profit-driven, transnational water corporations,† (IRIN). On the other hand, governments because of the interested in keeping their people safe usually prefer privatization so they can target places that ar e in the most need against money lucrative opportunities. Water companies have a tendency to play monopoly because they do not want to drive prices down or have the pressure to drive up equalities. Water is something everyone needs and should not be treated as a game of how to make the most money of it, but should be thought as how to help people with it. There is so much water yet only a small percentage can be used, so it is very precious and cannot be used as a way to make money of what is needed most. Companies are taking full advantage where they can within developed countries to make water a purely economic good, but that is 78% that does not live in poverty. It is only 22% of people who absolute need water yet the water subsidies are not essential to them. Women in South Africa would rather walk long distances to get water than pay for water that they could get for free even if it harmful to drink. Not that they do not want to pay for the water but do not have the money to do so. 1. 7 billion People live in poverty, where will they get the money to buy water, if they did have money, then what about all the other things that need to buy for a living? This is not to say that water should be completely free, but it should be made affordable to all. In South Africa alone there are more than 20 million people without sufficient sanitation services and another 15 million without a safe water supply. Most private companies do not care much about the environment because their worries are more about their shareholders. To have maximum profits they are more likely to find every way they can do reduce cost even if it means less care for the environment. The well being of the ecosystem and biodiversity is almost impossible to calculate so private companies’ would rather just use it as just another resource to be exploited, which is easier than protecting it. It’s hard enough getting fresh water in South Africa, but it gets even harder when some of their water is filled with acid because of the left over and abandoned mines in South Africa. â€Å"A study by Naicker et al. (2003) revealed that the groundwater in the mining district of Johannesburg, South Africa, is heavily contaminated and acidified as a result of oxidation of pyrite contained in the mine tailings sups, and has elected concentrations of heavy metals. The polluted groundwater is discharging into streams in the area and contributes up to 20% of stream flow, causing an increase the acidity of the stream water. The affect of the contaminated water from the mine can persist for more than 10 km beyond the source,† (Naicker et al. , 2003). This problem is all due to the fact that companies do not care about the ecosystem, but they were to prevent this in the first place there would not be a problem now. To clean this problem wastes even more money that could have gone to bringing more water to the needed. South African governments have taken actions into their own hands with a strong commitment to serve water to those who need it most, which is everyone. There have been many improvements with accessing water supplies from the urban to rural areas. There has been a significant increase in supplying water to rural areas from 1990 to 2006; it went from 62% to 92%, but within the same time frame there has only been a 55% to 59% increase in achieving sanitation. The problem is a very complex and expensive solution and it all has to do with maintenance. The government can fix the problem, but finding enough funding for the problem is a large concern. Why should this even be a problem because more than 60%t of illness can be traced back to lack of clean water? Having that knowledge that un-sanitized water is the problem, it should be the number one concern and should be fixed right away, but yet it is not. There are only a handful of private companies that manage a water and waste utility in South Africa the Siza Water Company, Greater Nelspruit utility Company and Johannesburg Water. Even still, all three of the companies’ focus on bringing water to the land, but are not fully concentrated on achieving sanitation. It seems South Africa has some of the most horrendous experiences when it comes to water privatization. South Africa, in August of 2002 had the worst outbreak of cholera in history that started outside of Empangeni and this is all due to the lack of clean water. â€Å"ANC Water and Forestry minister Ronnie Kasrils has admitted that the outbreak would not have happened if free water had been available. ‘The problem is that when we try to implement cost-recovery, any of the poor cannot pay,† (wsww). Even with access to government-provided water, if it is not free the poor cannot pay the $4. 80. People died and got even sicker; Now they need health care to become better, which costs more money. This could all have been prevented if only water was free, a price anyone can afford. Water is a precious resource of life for everyone, but companies take the time and effort to make it only so they can make money because it is something that is needed. People are getting sicker because of the lack of clean water that the government should provide because it is an essential eed and it is the government’s responsibility to their people to give them what they need to keep healthy. More than 60% of health problems can be traced back to water, therefore it is an easy problem to prevent, but it’s not. With clean water we can reverse the cycle because with clean water illness levels decrease, therefore people can go to work or school. With work or school they can then take care of themselves and their family. Therefore water is a human right not a human privilege; everyone should have access to clean water for their health and for their future. Cited â€Å"Running Dry: the humanitarian impact of the global water crisis. † IRIN In-Depth October 2006. November 16, 2010 lt; irinnews. org/pdf/in-depth/Running-Dry-IRIN-In-Depth. pdfgt; Naicker, K. , Cukrowska, E. , amp; McCarthy, T. S. 2003. Acid mine drainage from gold mining activities in Johannesburg, South Africa and environs. Environmental Pollution 122, 29-40. Marshall, Leon. â€Å"Water Crisis Looms in South Africa. † National Geographic. November 5, 2010. November 15, 2010. lt;http://blogs. nationalgeographic. om/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2010/11/water-crisis-looms-in-south-africa. htmlgt; â€Å"Water privatization in South Africa. † Wikipedia. November 15, 2010. lt;http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Water_privatisation_in_South_Africagt; â€Å"Private Vs. Public† Food and Water Watch. November 16, 2010. lt; foodandwaterwatch. org/water/private-vs-public/gt; Mason, Berry and Talbot, Chris. â€Å"What water privatization means for Africa. † Wor ld Socialist Web Site. September 7, 2002. November 15, 2010. lt; wsws. org/articles/2002/sep2002/wate-s07. shtmlgt;