Term 3 Week 2 (Blogging Assignment)

An article entitled 'The Religion of Water' was published in The Straits Times on 7 July 2011. In the article, it was mentioned that ' within countries, there is debate over whether water should be treated as a human right or as a commodity, access to which is determined by the market.' Please read the article.

Is there a difference between treating water as a human right and as a commodity? In your opinion, should water be treated as a human right or as a commodity?

Water, as we all know, is one of the most valuable natural resources known to man. The Earth's surface is covered in 66% of water, however, only 3% of that water is drinkable. Although it should be a renewable resource, decades of human water pollution has significantly reduced its already small amount. Many countries, especially those with seasonal droughts, are in increasing shortage of water, and thus, the general global demand for water has increased in the past decade. Despite this, many people in more developed countries are still wasting precious water – that other people would kill for – without even sparing a thought for them.

Charles Darwin once said that the world was a place where the rule “survival of the fittest” prevailed. According to this ideology, it is not wrong if humans treat water as a commodity. Democracy also supports this: the wealthy work hard enough to earn themselves the privilege of water; while the poor, who are incapable to earn enough, simply must die of thirst. Treating water as a human right, of course, is only most definitely practised in communist countries. Even then, there is corruption and the utopian world fails to come to reality.

Is there a difference between treating water as a human right and as a commodity?

In my opinion, I think that water, even though it is a necessity for human survival, should be treated as a commodity. Although some may argue that we should treat it as a human right, they fail to see that by treating it as a commodity, there might actually be a beneficial side to it. A commodity is “a good for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differiencation across the market”. That is to say that people pay a price subject to market demand for the commodity, water. Since water is in such short supply and high demand, its price would naturally make an impact on those who are able to afford it. Humans, as society progresses, become more and more materialistic, and thus, they would treasure money as much as their lives. Water is bought with money, and therefore is viewed as money itself, albeit in another form, by humans. They would learn to save and limit their use of water, so as to save money. This would bring about the awareness the governments have wanted us to learn all the time: Water is precious and we should save every drop of it.

In conclusion, I would like to emphasize that water should be treated as a commodity as it is for the best interests of everyone. This is clearly a utilitarian perspective, and although many die in the process after this decision, the ends justify the means: The survival of the fittest.