Who Owns Water?

The Nation ^ | 9/2/025 | Maude Barlow & Tony Clarke

[philman_36]

The Water Wars have been in the making for some time.
World water crisis looms, U.N. warns
(notice the link on the right to the article "U.N. official predicts war over freshwater" is broken
Wealthy industrialized countries could supply every person on earth with clean water if they canceled the Third World debt, increased foreign aid payments and placed a tax on financial speculation.
Again the onus is placed on "wealthy nations" to impoverish theirselves for the advent of "the poor nations".

"If we can't rise to your level we'll drag you down to ours."
And Maude Barlow & Tony Clarke's couched expression "tax on financial speculation" is nothing more than the Tobin Tax.

!NUTS

[nanny]

"BTW, what percentage of the U.S.'s water supply is currently owned by government-sponsored organizations?"

In Texas, ALL of the underground water now belongs to the state. They just passed a law and stole it. There is even talk of putting meters on private wells.

I have been trying to decide just why this was done.

Was it at the behest of the UN?.

Was it done so the politicians could reward their biggest contributors with plenty of water?

Was it done so some of the biggest contributors (and Pollutors) could not be sued by private well owners?

Was it done so the state could make a profit from water companies?

Right now, I just don't know, but the answer is out there, and it will become apparent sooner or later.

[okie01]

"He who controls the water controls the people."

Thus, the left's interest in water.

It really is j-u-s-t t-h-a-t s-i-m-p-l-e...

[Axenolith]

Environmental Geologist [Yawns]...

Solutions
1) Build reservoirs
2) Reinject or infiltrate runoff
3) Kick a socialist...

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

I live in Tennessee so I don't have this problem. Water falling on me is mine if I don't let it hit the ground. Who owned it before it fell upon me? Are you saying that the water in the sky is already owned by someone upon whom it did not or does not fall? A neighbor may own rights to water in a creek or in ground water but how can he own it before it touches the ground? Under what legal authority does someone have title to God's rain water falling from the sky? Foolish nonsense like that is how men come to slay each other. Take my rainwater by force. I will resist with force.

[editor-surveyor]

" dedicated to saving the world's water as part of the global commons."

Marxism marches on.

" The world is running out of fresh water. Humanity is polluting, diverting and depleting the wellspring of life at a startling rate."

The sky is falling!!!

Barbara Streisand!

New fresh water falls from the sky every day.

[editor-surveyor]

"You own the title to the land you live on, but your neighbor, who you bought it from, held on to the water rights"

I don't know of any state where that can be done, but I know that it is impossible in all of the west coast states. - Water rights cannot be severed from the land on sale. (a portion of water rights can be sold, or condemned through emminant domain)

[Askel5]

Thanks for the flat, ES.

Great thread, independentmind.

[Ben Ficklin]

The ownership of the water beneath one's land is called the Rule of Capture and is a cornerstone of water rights in Texas. The state does not own all the ground water. Just ask T.Boone Pickens or Ozarka.

[Cold Heat]

"Water promises to be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th century: the precious commodity that determines the wealth of nations."

Deja vu! This is the same crap they tried to get us worried about in the 20th century! Even a broken clock is right twice a day, but these folks have not changed their line a bit.

[SierraWasp]

"Proposals to "deregulate", "privatize" and Enronize our water systems would be disastrous."

Now Willie... which is more subject to the temptation of corruption? The "Private Sector," or the Public Sector?"

As George Washington once said, "Government is nothing if but the essence of force!" So tell me please, which "sector," public or private, is most subject to the "will of the people" on any given day???

Remember... Power corrupts! Absolute power corrupts absolutely!!!

I eagerly await your profound answer.

[Ben Ficklin]

Tennessee has riparian water rights. New Mexico has prior appropriation water rights. Riparian rights are found in English Common Law and were adopted as the the East was settled. The Spanish established prior appropriation in the west. East of the 98th meridian and west of the Sierras/Cascades is riparian and every thing else is prior appropriation.

[Paulus Invictus]

So we are to be allowed to dry up and blow away, as one misinformed Freeper has suggested? It's not just development that causes the water shortage. We have had three straight years of severe drought and it's getting worse.

[SierraWasp]

"He who controls the water controls the people."

Great response!!!

Mine added something... He who controls the air or water, controls the land! He who controls the land, controls the people!!!

Behold! We are all threatened by "Government Lovers," whose only solution is suffocation. Their "preservation" is akin to that used on Egyptian Mummies. It only works after a tyrannical fashion.

[kms61]

I don't think anybody should dry up and blow away, but living in a desert region requires adaptation to the environment....Y'know, our tax dollars are paying for all those fountains in Vegas....If not for subsidized water there wouldn't be two million people living in Maricopa county, and nine million in the LA basin...food for thought.

[RightWhale]

Corporate ownership of the air we breathe?

This came about already decades ago. Kyoto wasn't the beginning but a continuation.

[mamelukesabre]

Well, if you're capturing rain water and using for irrigation, or drinking, or for animals to drink....what difference does it make? It ends up back on the ground, right? If I'm out in a rainstorm and I drink down a bunch of rain drops, I'm just going to pee them out in a couple hours. I'm not actually stealing his water, I'm just making it take a little detour before he gets it.

heehee

[SierraWasp]

"food for thought."

So what's you're thought? That we should avoid economic progress? Where water flows, the economy grows!

The one "good" that collective government action makes possible is the potential for economic opportunity that each of us as individuals cannot create alone.

You call that a "subsidy?" I call that what politics should be... the art of the possible!!!

Capitalism IS the ONLY worthwhile government program!!!

[mamelukesabre]

What if they paid you handsomely for it? Does that change your opinion any?