Re:Why districts are slow to charge market rates for water
by ggm on Monday May 22, 2023 @01:00AM
(#36027639)
"people" here includes farmers, miners, and a swag of other corporate entities. It's not just about tapwater for people and the public utility function, it's about water rights and costs in the food chain and construction and mining industries, amongst others.
Farmers at least should know they have to operate in a market, with all kinds of conditionality on interrupting flow, capture of water which falls over their land (but is not entirely theirs to keep, because they are in a catchment for a water supply for other people) -And the same with bore water: there's no extraction without impacting somebody else, unless you're in a very unusual position: ground water is another shared commons.
Reticulated water in domestic contexts? Sure. A lot of people don't understand the social and economic pressures. Down here in Australia, with 10+ year droughts across large metro areas recent history and investment in desalination plants, we have a very good idea of the limits to domestic water usage which can be required of us. The farmers in NSW are at war with themselves and riverine management processes around retention of water flows over land, in the streams.
Farmers at least should know they have to operate in a market, with all kinds of conditionality on interrupting flow, capture of water which falls over their land (but is not entirely theirs to keep, because they are in a catchment for a water supply for other people) -And the same with bore water: there's no extraction without impacting somebody else, unless you're in a very unusual position: ground water is another shared commons.
Reticulated water in domestic contexts? Sure. A lot of people don't understand the social and economic pressures. Down here in Australia, with 10+ year droughts across large metro areas recent history and investment in desalination plants, we have a very good idea of the limits to domestic water usage which can be required of us. The farmers in NSW are at war with themselves and riverine management processes around retention of water flows over land, in the streams.