One thing you can absolutely guarantee when it comes to a necessity of life commodity, a black swan event will occur and people will die because they are priced out of the market.

Imagine, if you will, when the Texas grid went all wonky and those people who choose to buy power at open market rates had to prepay for their $13,000 kw/hr electricity because the power company had a limit on how much credit they will give you. Now imagine a drought where there is a disruption in the water supply because a pump burned out due to record setting high temperatures.

I’m no cheerleader for big government but if people insist on having one there are valid activities that they should engage in to protect the citizens from getting bitch slapped by the invisible hand of the market. This being one of them considering how capital intensive it is to provide a reliable water supply.

Black swan events can cause shortages no matter if it's a state controlled supply situation or decentralized market.

What if water were public for individual consumers but private for corporations?

Why?

Apparently so those water hoarding companies have to pay the full rate, instead of some subsidized rate. I.e. stop privatizing profits with socializing the costs

So that water supply becomes a workable business model, increasing supply, and so that uneconomic water usage is discouraged. Such as almond farming in Southern California during the summer