The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > Unbundling water from land > Comments

Unbundling water from land : Comments

By Susan Hawthorne, published 15/1/2007

Will our Australian US free trade agreement mean we get sold up the river over water?

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. Page 3
  5. 4
  6. All
I have no problem with water rights as long as it is a true user pays system. Whoever has the rights for a particular amount of water should also be liable at least for the cost of maintaining the infrastructure for water storage and distribution. Ownership of water rights without such a liability is synonymous with owning a house and not paying rates.
Posted by Fester, Monday, 15 January 2007 8:34:14 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
The NSW water management act 2000, implemented 2004, permits holding of water entitlements without having to own land. Prior to this entitlements have been tradeable by landholders within river systems since at least the early 80s.
By being tradeable the water will find it's way to the most profitable use, whether that be an urban water user, industry or growing cotton and rice. Obviously not all the water is required by urban and industry users so agriculture uses what is left, after environmental allowances, some 70% of water extracted for consumptive purposes. If cotton and rice give the best return for the water in their regions it would be a waste of a valuable resource to not get the most out of it.
Govt departments are now striving to achieve real returns on water delivery, management and associated assets. So how much is their to fear from new trading rules and privitisation? Not a lot if NSW activity since 04 is anything to go by.
Govt should make the effort to ensure Australian groups have the opportunity to match any offers or assist with credit facilites needed to keep water supply in Australian hands.
Posted by rojo, Monday, 15 January 2007 10:35:10 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
The privatisation of water is a growing global phenomenon that is being actively promoted by the WTO, often with catastrophic results - particularly in the Third World.

One only has to look at what Bechtel was attempting in Bolivia to see what's in store for us all.
http://www.democracyctr.org/waterwar/

This is a very serious issue that should be investigated further.

The trend is more widespread than most people realise.

Coca Cola for example, now controls 10% of the world's drinkable water and is on target to achieve 20% within the next decade. They utilise military satellites to locate viable sources in poorer countries and then move in and take control of the resource, usually to the detriment of the local population.

As for Free Trade Agreements, I believe that the USA/Canada Agreement included the right for US operators to compete with Canada's Postal Service. When they couldn't compete, Canada was forced to raise the cost of it's own Postal prices to allow the US competitors to compete "fairly".
Sounds like a great deal.
Posted by wobbles, Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:28:52 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
its good to see the author raising such issues - the implications as far as the FTA goes had escaped me so far. And those implications are scary. I have no great issue with market forces being allowed to determine a price for a good/service. What worries me in this case though is the potential for the good (water) to be controlled by a few large corporates with a large number of buyers. Basic economics would suggest that this is a great way to end up with inflated prices (the same way as fresh produce farmers in particular have suffered from deflated prices due to the corporate buying power of the few purchasers of their product). Lots of buyers, few sellers means that the sellers can set their own price (potentially this COULD be regulated, but that isnt the way our governments like to operate, so I suggest that this is not likely). This would be particularly the case should one company supply one area.

The thought of companies being able to claim rights to rainwater is even more scary. This doesnt even allow the possibility of being independent of the system.

As for taxes on caught water, the NSW govt was planning to introduce a tax on farmers who caught more than 10% of the rainfall runoff on their property. This was being introduced in about 1997 - not sure what happened, it kind of fell out of the headlines and hasnt been heard of since. Seems it doesnt matter what side of the political fence you are on...
Posted by Country Gal, Tuesday, 16 January 2007 9:28:36 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Great link Wobbles,

I highly recomend other posters check it out.

This issue is far greater than people imagine, and Malcolm Turnbul is very talented in sniffing out the opportunity to make money for himself and his mates
Posted by Aka, Tuesday, 16 January 2007 2:35:27 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Australians will be remembered as stupid people who were coerced into drinking their own sewage whilst their dwindling water supplies were sold off to the corporates. How stupid we are!
What to do?
How do we turn this around?
All day 29/1 we heard the likes of Beattie and Howard saying it is all right to drink recycled sewage.
How has it come to this?
Surely this is outrageous!
Posted by Manning, Monday, 29 January 2007 10:14:51 PM
Find out more about this user Visit this user's webpage Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. Page 3
  5. 4
  6. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy