Blue Gold Water Wars
World’s water supply
According to the documentary, the world’s water supply is running out because we use up water faster than how the natural systems usually replenish it. It states how water is used up through mining fifteen times more than there is on the ground. Pollution is another case that destroys the wetlands, which act as natural filters to block nutrients carried by rivers, keeping the soil fertile and water healthy. Cutting down trees, soil erosion and building more hardscapes sends the freshwater straight to the ocean desertifying the planet.
Social problems/ supply and demand
Water regulations have led to the emergence of issues of water eights. Farmers in the US are allowed to use as much water as possible to make a strange economic sense. An irresponsible regulation leads to massive fertilizer run-offs, pesticides, among other chemicals that cause local ecosystem havoc (YouTube). The regulations that positively impact large corporations are the ones update according to their lobbying power. There is a huge gap in the water supply between large corporations and small scale farmers and for the household consumption, the demand is higher than supply. Water is a basic need and lack of this leads to economic losses due to health issues that arise.
Water privatization
In the beginning water used to be shared but with time there came the rise of Capitalism, water
became a source of profit so individuals became the owners of water sources and sold it to members of the community. When this ended up being uneven, that is, some people got more and better water than others, the state stepped in and made water distribution public. In gaining profits, the developing countries are forced by corporate giants to privatize their water supply (Chang, Gordon, 2013 pg 93-90). The government provides basic water needs to citizens while corporations provide companies. Bolivia, where the local water cooperation was denied a loan by the world bank, forcing them to privatize water, is a perfect example.
Actions
Everyone is striving to attain their basic right to water. There have been numerous court cases, UN conventions, violent revolutions, constitutions have been revised, and also grade school has held local protest trying to fight for the right to water. In Bolivian’s case, people were killed, others injured and arrested, but later on, the water was given back to the people after the subsidiary to Betchel was kicked out of the country. Having quality standards and not fighting over a public or private service provider is the key.
The impact
Both food and water are economically good since they increase our welfare by providing our needs. The application of hydroponics in dry land that lacks good quality soil reduces the need to import food. In the Flint’s case, officials denied them corrosion controls to the water. They fought for justice and the situation later changed. Coming up with a way to overhaul our water usage would help avoid serious wars over water rights. Through conservation, activism and coming up with technologies that would assist in water conservation and purification would also help avoid worldwide water wars.
Administrative law issue
The global administrative law under the human rights to water assists in explaining international water resources law, among others, in the constitutional law (Casini & Lorenzo, 2019). in other words, it assists in addressing issues concerning human rights requirements, which relate to the actions taken by private corporate actors. When referring to the water crisis it is directly regarded as a governance crisis, meaning that its governance doesn’t have full legitimacy. The global administrative law issues’ main focus is access to justice, transparency and participation.
Action relative to administrative law agencies
The documentary states that there is no particular model of service provision required by human rights. The private provision that enables cooperation to have privatization is not excluded. Therefore, states have to make sure that access is or everybody. By using regulation, adequate oversight, complaint procedures and effective monitoring, private, public, and actors don’t violate human rights (Szilvasi, 2017). I would ensure that clean water Act provisions that regulate any pollution are enforced, and those that need to be revised are done so.
References
“YouTube.” YouTube, youtu.be/Ikb4WG8UJRw.
Chang, Gordon G. “Blue gold: the coming water wars.” (2013): 93-96.
Casini, Lorenzo. “Global Administrative Law.” International Legal Theory: Foundations and Frontiers (Cambridge University Press, 2019, Forthcoming) (2019).
Szilvasi, M. (2017). 10 Parallel claims for the human right to water. Claiming Citizenship Rights in Europe: Emerging Challenges and Political Agents.
