welsh water advised to sell water like its oil

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-17656317

see this is what a dont like about the modern world treating the most basic and essential substance on earth like a bloody commodity ... if someone cant afford to buy oil they cant drive if someone cant afford water they die simple what this man is suggesting id ludicrous profiteering off of something like water.

Reply 1

TheHansa

11

Makes sense if you see things in terms of profit afterall, water is more necessary then oil and yes, it is a commodity.

Reply 2

Elwyn

17

I think Welsh Water have ever right to do it:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4789372.stm

Reply 3

screenager2004

14

The entire ethic of property is based on the flawed logic that there are adequate resources for every human on the planet.

All the worlds suffering is caused by property and competition for scarce resources. We have all inherited this earth, water belongs to everyone and no one.

Reply 4

lukas1051

18

Using water, the most essential natural resource for human life, as a way to make profit for personal gain, represents everything that is wrong with the world we live in. There is enough water for everyone on earth, the problem is distribution, exploiting this, denying people water, is morally wrong.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 5

Tommyjw

18

Original post by calumsteele1

if someone cant afford to buy oil they cant drive if someone cant afford water they die simple what this man is suggesting id ludicrous profiteering off of something like water.

To be fair we are hardly talking about people who have no access to water and are dying of thirst and they are proposing to make them buy it .. so its a bit silly to try and bring in people suffering anywhere near dying in any sense of the word into the argument.

Reply 6

Genocidal

19

That's just sickening.

It's already sickening enough to see that businesses can even make a profit off of what essentially drives life. Water should be available to all and not under the control of private business.

Reply 7

madders94

18

I'm going to be a bit of a nationalist here and say good on them and I completely support it. Cofio Celyn :smile:

Reply 8

nju

4

It's probably never going to happen unless the conservatives want to lose more popularity

Reply 9

beepbeeprichie

18

Original post by screenager2004

The entire ethic of property is based on the flawed logic that there are adequate resources for every human on the planet.

All the worlds suffering is caused by property and competition for scarce resources. We have all inherited this earth, water belongs to everyone and no one.

No it isn't.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_principle

Reply 10

Nick100

5

Original post by calumsteele1

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-17656317

see this is what a dont like about the modern world treating the most basic and essential substance on earth like a bloody commodity ... if someone cant afford to buy oil they cant drive if someone cant afford water they die simple what this man is suggesting id ludicrous profiteering off of something like water.

It is a commodity. Why is it so terrible for someone to earn money while providing you with something essential? If you cut out the profit incentive what incentive would there be for people to invest capital in increasing water supplies, and in infrastructure for transporting water to where it is in highest demand?

Reply 11

Nick100

5

Original post by screenager2004

The entire ethic of property is based on the flawed logic that there are adequate resources for every human on the planet.

All the worlds suffering is caused by property and competition for scarce resources. We have all inherited this earth, water belongs to everyone and no one.

Firstly, the idea of property is not based on the idea that we have adequate resources on the planet and if we had limitless resources property wouldn't matter. Secondly, there are adequate resources to sustain every human particularly with advancing technology.

Thirdly, it is completely absurd to claim that all suffering is caused by property. And people suffer most in countries where property rights are ignored; North Korea for example.

Reply 12

screenager2004

14

Original post by beepbeeprichie

No it isn't.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_principle

This doesn't seem right. From that article, the homestead principle seems incredibly unethical. It's essentially theft. You can't ethically lay claim to a natural resource, just because you've laboured on it, or simply because "no one else has claimed it" - it's not yours in the first place to take.

Take John Locke for instance (the first author mentioned on the article you gave me) - in his Treatise of Government, his conception of private property depends on:
"This appropriation of a plot of land by improving it wasn't done at the expense of any other man, because there was still enough (and as good) left for others - more than enough for the use of the people who weren't yet provided for."

Thus, Locke's private property depends on absence of scarcity - a reality we do not live in. His theory is obsolete.

(Ironically he also says "Nobody could think he had been harmed by someone else's taking a long drink of water if there was the whole river of the same water left for him to quench his thirst" whilst there are severe droughts in the east of England.)

I need to research this more - this can't be right. This can't be UK law... this is ridiculous. You can't sell off natural resources to areas where there are shortages, you can sell the transportation services, sure - but not the water itself?

Reply 13

fruit_n_veg

7

Like oil is a little on the extreme side but yes, why shouldn't Wales sell it's water? It's a natural resource they have. Plus, a lot of parts of the UK with the supply crises have the highest water use per person anyway so it might be a bit of an incentive to not leave the tap on!

Of course that BBC News article fails to acknowledge Welsh Water already supply parts of England with water - I turn my tap on in England and it's Welsh Water coming out of it.

Also, the Elan Valley in Mid Wales which supplies much of the West Midlands with water, the land is owned by Welsh Water but the water is supplied to Severn Trent, so there's a lot of this water trade already going on.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 14

madders94

18

Commentors on the Daily Mail are basically saying things along the line of "Wales, remember that England still own you, so give us your water for free", and saying that they paid for our reservoirs. What, like the reservoir that you drowned one of our villages for? The reservoir that supplied one of your cities but now serves only as a glorified white water centre? :facepalm2:

Reply 15

Studentus-anonymous

12

Perhaps it's time that the south of England started upgrading its water transportation and storage.

The reason for hosepipe bans is partway because the water infrastructure is out-dated and inefficient and wasteful.

welsh water advised to sell water like its oil

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