Below is the second installment of Alanna Shaikh’s two-part series on the cost of water:

By: Alanna Shaikh

If we want people to take water conservation seriously, we’re going to have to make them pay for water. How can we do that in a way that’s fair to poor and vulnerable populations?

So, you’ve got a country with a water system that can be metered. You also believe that water is a human right. What do you do?

You find a middle ground. Our options don’t actually have to consist of Central-Asia style water waste or some kind of grim future where poor people die of thirst, like Dickens where H20 replaces the porridge.

The option I like best goes like this: you get a certain amount of water for free — a reasonable amount per household, based on household size. Everything you use beyond that amount, you pay for; you would set that additional fee high so that the extra fees cover the cost of maintaining the water system. Yes, it makes things like swimming pools or long showers as luxuries, but that seems right to me. A swimming pool is not a human right. Drinking water and good health are.

Kofi Annan framed water and sanitation as a human right during his tenure as UN secretary general, “Access to safe water is a fundamental human need and therefore a basic human right.” And I agree, but access to unlimited water just hurts your community, your environment, and eventually yourself. Enough water and unlimited water are two very different creatures. Continue reading →