You knew this was coming, right? From Bloomberg:
Water is joining gold, oil and other commodities traded on Wall Street, highlighting worries that the life-sustaining natural resource may become scarce across more of the world.
Farmers, hedge funds and municipalities alike will be able to hedge against — or bet on — potential water scarcity starting this week, when CME Group Inc. launches contracts linked to the $1.1 billion California spot water market. According to Chicago-based CME, the futures will help water users manage risk and better align supply and demand.
If “better align supply and demand” does not make your blood run cold, perhaps it should.
Two billion people now live in nations plagued by water problems, and almost two-thirds of the world could face water shortages in just four years, Tim McCourt, global head of equity index and alternative investment products at CME, said in an interview. “The idea of managing risks associated to water is certainly increased in importance.”
This is a subject that caught my attention years ago when a GOP state representative tried to get control of our local water supply. For privatization, to be sure. Privatization of public assets was happening across the country. First cripple the tax base for maintenance of not-for-profit public assets, then sell off the crumbling assets for a song to the private sector to operate as a monopoly.
“Water access is a fundamental human right no matter where you live,” said Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) in an emailed 2016 statement calling out the World Bank:
“Yes, we’ve just now started shedding light on this local and national issue in the United States, but there are global implications to think about as well,” Moore added, pointing to the World Bank’s investments in private water companies. “It has become clear that there are those in positions of great power who are all too willing to prioritize profits over public safety.”
Charlie Pierce from the same period in commenting on moves by Nestle to control water in Kunkletown, PA:
If there is one element that cannot be turned over to whatever people believe market forces to be, it’s water. It should never be commodified or sold off to make some investor wealthy far from the people who need it. That this ever needs to be argued is a measure of how far we’ve allowed corporate power to change us as a nation.
When Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s emergency manager took charge in Detroit in 2014, it was no accident that the first public infrastructure targeted for private operation was its water and sewer system. Financial decisions that poisoned the water supply in Flint had already taken place. I warned at the time:
They began by shutting off water to thousands of poor residents behind on their bills. Local activist Maureen Taylor told the Netroots Nation conference in July [timestamp 1:08:45], “This monstrous thing that’s going on in Detroit … beyond demonic … You gotta leave here changed! … Water is a human right.”
But with the metastasized capitalism Naomi Klein describes, we’re dealing with people who would sell you the air you breathe if they could control how it gets to your nose. And if you cannot afford to buy their air, well, you should have worked harder, planned better, and saved more.
We’ve learned nothing from Flint, I’m afraid.