Clean water is a right: Water, sanitation and poverty

From the Economist: Clean water is a right: Water, sanitation and poverty

GROWING up on the shores of Lake Victoria in the 1950s, Anna Tibaijuka would earn a couple of cents by sorting coffee beans for her father. With one of these coins she would buy a sweet from an Indian shopkeeper. With the other, she would buy potable water from a kiosk.

But when she returned to her hometown in early 1960s, the kiosk was no more. Julius Nyerere, Tanzania's first president, had declared water free. When it cost a cent, not a drop was wasted, Mrs Tibaijuka recalls. But when the tap ran freely, water was squandered, and—inevitably—stopped.

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The report calls for access to water to be recognised as a human right by governments around the world, as it is by South Africa's. But for all its idealism, the study does not repeat Nyerere's mistake. It acknowledges a hard reality that some people find as unsavoury as the technical details of building latrines: whatever they put in their constitution, governments should also make better use of the most reliable guarantor of supply—price.

Whether or not water is a right, it is also a commodity which, unlike liberty of expression or freedom from torture, is costly to provide. If those costs are not covered, water will not be supplied. Moreover, unlike most human rights, a litre of H2O enjoyed by one person cannot be consumed by anyone else. If some people underpay and overconsume the stuff, there will be less of it for others. As the human development report puts it: “Underpricing (or zero pricing in some cases) has sustained overuse: if markets delivered Porsche cars at give-away prices, they too would be in short supply.”

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The poor would be puzzled to hear that the profit motive is in retreat. As the report points out, many of them rely on water freelancers—laying pipes, drilling wells, or trucking water—who sell water to people unserved by public utilities. In Latin America this “other private sector”—as Tova Maria Solo, a World Bank analyst, calls it—shows business acumen and sets surprisingly keen prices.

For all the passion of their utopian defenders, the poor know better than to count on help from their own governments or even on foreign donors for water. Unless Mr Watkins's case for rationally administered aid is heard, poor, thirsty people will continue to turn to the “other private sector”, which is often the only provider they can rely on.