介绍:
[22.Valuing Water]
Humanity uses a little less than half the water available worldwide.
Yet occurrences of shortages and droughts are causing famine
and distress in some areas,
and industrial and agricultural by-products
are polluting water supplies.
Since the world's population is expected to double
in the next 50 years,
many experts think we are on the edge
of a widespread water crisis.
But that doesn't have to be the outcome.
Water shortages do not have to trouble the world
---if we start valuing water more than we have in the past.
Just as we began to appreciate petroleum more
after the 1970s oil crises,
today we must start looking at water
from a fresh economic perspective.
We can no longer afford to consider water as a virtually free resource
of which we can use as much as we like in any way we want.
Instead,
for all uses except the domestic demand of the poor,
governments should price water to reflect its actual value.
This means charging a fee for the water itself
as well as for the supply costs.
Governments should also protect this resource
by providing water in more economically
and environmentally sound ways.
No matter what steps governments take
to provide water more efficiently,
they must change their institutional and legal approaches
to water use.
Rather than spread control among hundreds
or even thousands of local, regional,
and national agencies that watch various aspects of water use,
countries should set up central authorities
to coordinate water policy.
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