TRADING THE RAIN: SHOULD THE WORLD'S FRESH WATER RESOURCES BE AN INTERNATIONALLY TRADED COMMODITY

摘要

Whether water should be a commodity, subject to ownership, trade, and pricing based on supply and demand economics, or considered a common good, subject to principles of human rights and environmental protection has become a subject of international debate. This debate takes on an exceptionally critical meaning to regions, which are water-stressed or water poor, and become much more complicated where the waters in question are transboundary in nature, such as in the Middle East. As the entire set of arguments, which are analyzed here for the strength of their evidence, tends to be framed around the idea of an impending global water crisis, to those involved in alleviating this problem this paper may serve as a useful diagnostic tool.