LeakBird

Conserving Water, One Toilet At A Time

If More Government Intervention in Water Markets and Higher Water Rates are a Lock, Then Let’s Invest More of Our Time and Money in Saving Water for Ourselves, Our Families and Our Communities (LeakBird)

Feb.24, 2009 in Water Conservation

Chris Brown wrote a post on the economics of water for the Ludwig Von Mises Institute, in which he argues that water shortages wouldn’t exist in a free market. To put it another way, with government intervention, water shortages are virtually guaranteed. I happen to agree with Mr. Brown, however, it’s easier to acknowledge what is and what has been for a long time now, rather than to wish it wasn’t so.

The water market does comprise a mostly non-renewable resource (groundwater and fresh water, at least, especially when taking into account 6.2 billions human bodies to hydrate). And 90% of the global water industry is publicly owned and operated.

But to get back to my starting point, we do have water shortages and we do have government intervention, and what to do about it realistically? I’m no expert on water policy, so one would do much better to read David Zetland’s blog “Aguanomics” for answers to this question.

However, it’s clear that we’re headed toward higher water rates and more government intervention in water markets, as virtually every municipality across the US has higher water rates scheduled for the near future. And in the wake of the economic downturn, in which we find commercial as well as residential water usage having gone down slightly, the water utilities are getting squeezed and they are having to bump water rates at an ever-accelerated pace, in order that they keep dwindling revenues from putting them into the red.

So what to do about this trend, if I’m a tenant, a landlord, a business owner or a public official? I would say, educate ourselves about water saving technologies and methods, and not only invest our time but our money in them, today, right now.

It’s awfully nice to have that High Efficiency Toilet (HET) fully installed before the new tiered water rate schedule goes into effect in your municipality. It’s good to be prepared for what is! And not only will it bring us together, saving us millions of gallons of water — it’ll also be good for our personal as well as our national economies.

Abendigo Reebs is the VP of Business Development for LeakBird Industries LLC in San Francisco, CA. He may be reached by email at ben@leakbird.com

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