Water, a universal good
Water, a universal good
Since primary school we have been taught the importance of water and its extraordinary hydrological cycle.
A cycle that, through the phases of evaporation, condensation, precipitation and infiltration, allows this fundamental good for life on earth to continuously renew itself.
A cycle that belongs to nature and that is rhythmic and regulated by it. A process that allows human life, like other living beings, to perpetuate itself uninterruptedly.
The universal value of the water good therefore represents a right, equal, by extension, to the right to life and, as such, in the category of international rights.
The right to water is therefore an extension of the right to life affirmed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It reflects the indispensability of this resource in relation to human life.
It is precisely in this sense that the UN resolution of 28 July 2010 declared, for the first time in history, the right to water “a universal and fundamental human right”.
This fundamental resolution repeatedly stresses that drinking water and for hygienic use, in addition to being a right of every man, more than other human rights, concerns the dignity of the person, is essential to the full enjoyment of life, is fundamental for all others. human rights.
In short, a right above other rights.
Unfortunately, as for others, this resolution is not binding, that is, it affirms a principle that still recommends (does not oblige) States to implement initiatives to ensure quality drinking water, accessible, at affordable prices for all.
It was approved by the General Assembly with 122 votes in favor, 41 abstentions and no opposition.
Yet, in a historical moment characterized by great changes and contradictions and, above all, by the ever decreasing availability of water, as a result of many factors, in the general silence, in 2020, water was listed on the stock exchange for the first time in the history and, therefore, may be the subject of speculation.
Thus the most precious and owned asset of all can be the object of financial speculation; thus its price will fluctuate as happens to raw materials such as gold. And so, while in Italy we vote for water to remain a public good, the world is thinking of listing it on the stock exchange.
A speculation that comes, among other things, in a period of human history in which water is beginning to be scarce: a study published just a year ago showed how mountains and glaciers around the world are no longer able to store and store water. ‘water because of the climate crisis, and how this will lead in a few years to a real planetary water emergency with almost two billion people who, literally, will die of thirst.
A water crisis linked to the excessive exploitation of this resource by agriculture, industry and human consumption, making water, on paper a widely available commodity given its diffusion on the planet, a precious good not because it is fundamental but because increasingly rare.
Beyond the reasons that led to the listing of this resource on the stock exchange, it is evident that no listing and no speculation can make someone miss a good or make it pay above its economic capacity.
As happens in the field of patents on DNA, another universal good of all, perhaps the real challenge induced by globalization is not that of a common market but that of a system of common rules.
With nearly two-thirds of the world’s population facing water scarcity by 2025, the time has come to rewrite the rules and resolutions of the countries of the world before the poorest, sadly increasingly poor, pay too much for everyone. salty.
We must therefore believe that even political language and its objectives are starting to mature a new vision, where the word Ethics is placed above all others.
The recent events of the world pandemic, the interminable conflicts in the hottest areas of the globe, the ever closer famines lead us to a single consideration.
The time has come to abandon forever an old and now worn out political system, made up of colonialism, genocide, homologation, immense suffering; in the name of a progress which, beyond technological appearances, is depriving all human populations of the superior value: the dignity of life.
Guido Bissanti