Term 3 Week 2 (Weekend 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?

Post your 300 word response on your blog.

Air, food and water. These are the 3 necessary ingredients that all living things need, without them, life cannot be sustained. A human being can survive for a week without food, 3~4 days without water and about a minute without air. As you can see, water is quite important in a man's life. Over 70% of the earth is covered by water and only 3% is drinkable water. That is less about 0.04% of the matter on earth that is drinkable. Yet we have over 9 billion people to feed, not to mention about plants and animals. This limited amount should be distributed out evenly so that the countries can sustain themselves, but this is hardly the case. Water is treated as a business and those who have the resources and money will get more water, and those without those resources are left with nothing, thus leading to water-shortages. As I said earlier, water is needed for all living things, without water, agriculture cannot survive and without it, food will run out quickly. Since water is so vital for human survival, shouldn’t every person get what they need? Water as a human right means that water can be distributed to anybody who requires it, regardless of wealth, social status and power. Unlike commodities like soft drinks that we consume for pleasure, water is the fuel that keeps us alive.

This is an issue that is worth debating. Water should be given to everyone fairly, but does those that worked hard for it be willing to give water? If you did not do anything to deserve this water, why should it be given fairly to you? Thus I feel that using water as a business is alright.