Is A Human Right To Water A Bad Idea?

Dr. Mike Compana of Oregon State University – known as Aquadoc – recently put up a post asking whether the human right to water is a bad idea. The question is prompted by an article in Global Water Intelligence opposing the UN High Commission For Human Rights’ (UNHCHR) possible adoption of an obligation on the part of utilities to provide a basic supply of free water to low-income groups, regardless of whether the supply could be successfully financed. I will not repeat the arguments in the article, other than to say that they focus on whether such an obligation would halt private investment in extending water services. It is worth a read and I highly recommend you head over and check it out.

This land is my land, but the rain isn’t…

In Colorado (among other western states) you do not own the water that falls out of the sky onto your own property. An interesting article in the Wall Street Journal discusses Colorado’s water law, which some lawmakers want to change, that divvies up water even before it hits the ground.

Now, this is not a new issue out west, though it sounds more than a little strange to someone (like myself) in the northeast. I was struck however by the statement in the article that water is distributed “[U]nder a seniority system based on first-come first-serve claims staked out as far back as the 1850s.” Apparently this developed in part as an outgrowth of customs developed by early prospectors (see here for a brief discussion of the appropriation system).

But, one has to question the rationality of dividing water rights according to claims dating back more than a century. Further, the idea of “first come, first serve” may be rational in certain contexts, like a gold rush, but I have serious doubts that modern water rights are one of them.