OPINION/COMMENTARY

Water Socialists Are All Wet

A global water crisis is looming. More than a billion people worldwide lack access to clean and safe water – with devastating effects: 12 million deaths annually and millions of others struck by diseases associated with the lack of sanitary water. Last year, more people likely died from lack of water than from armed conflicts. Today is World Water Day and the launch of the United Nation's international water decade, aimed at promoting the UN Millennium Goal of halving the number of people without access to clean and safe water. This is not the first time the UN has made bombastic declarations about water for everyone. It did so in 1977, when heads of state and governments of the member states promised to provide their populations with water. In fact the first international water decade actually took place in the 1980s, to little practical effect. There may be a solution to what had been an insoluble problem. In recent years, a small number of developing country governments have turned to the private sector for help and have introduced market-oriented reforms in the water sector. Overall, the results have been encouraging....

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