Allocating and Stewarding Water Resources
 The
Challenge
Protecting our natural resources is a goal that sometimes takes a back
seat to more pressing issues. But in the long term, our stewardship of
oceans and rivers, our fairness in allocating water will have just as
much influence on our future as the prosecution of war or the improvement
of the economy.
What's at Stake
Leon Panetta, chair of the Pew Oceans Commission, has said, "We
need to alert the American public that the oceans are in crisis."
Much the same thing could be said of rivers and streams. Contamination,
over-fishing, and coastal sprawl threaten the 70 percent of our planet
that is made up of water. But the issue goes beyond preventing pollution.
Too often, these bodies of water are seen only as a source of commodities,
such as drinking water or fish. But as Spanish economist Pedro Arrojo
Agudo told Sierra magazine, "Rivers embody cultural values,
social values, and the identity of a territory…. The beach is more valuable
as beach than as sand, and the river is more valuable as river than as
water."
Critical Questions
- Is water a commodity? If so, who owns it? Should the provision of
water be privatized, or is it inherently part of the common good and
thus better handled by government?
- Roughly one person in four does not have access to safe water. What
is the fairest way to allocate water resources to provide for these
basic needs, as well as agricultural and industrial uses?
- How can we encourage people to see water not as an infinite resource
but as worthy of conservation and stewardship? How can we draw attention
to the non-quantifiable benefits of water, such as natural beauty or
community?
- Should residential development or cultivation be permitted to occur
where there is an insufficient supply of water? Does it, for example,
make sense to cultivate rice in a semi-arid state such as California?
- In the state of California, is it fair that some water customers
are metered and some are unmetered? What is the effect of this system
on conservation and our duty to steward this resource?
October 23, 2003
 Read
the text of Judy Nadler’s presentation on Allocating and Stewarding Water
Resources.
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