Term 3 Week 2 (Blogging Assignment)

An article entitled 'The Religion of Water' was published in The Straits Times on 7 July 2011. In the article, it was mentioned that ' within countries, there is debate over whether water should be treated as a human right or as a commodity, access to which is determined by the market.' Please read the article.

Is there a difference between treating water as a human right and as a commodity? In your opinion, should water be treated as a human right or as a commodity?

Post your 300 word response on your blog.

I think that water should be treated as a human right and not as a commodity as having it as a commodity would be as though one can never live in this world without money. If water is treated as a commodity, does it mean that those that are poor do not have the right to live? We all deserve a place in this world, a right to live in this world, why then should water, a necessity in life, depend on others? We cannot live without water for around 2 days and that is a fact that every human must face. Unlike food, which we can survive without for much longer, can be a commodity as we still have a buffer time to earn enough money to survive or wait for the price to decline. However, if water is also treated as a commodity, would lives not be lost easily? Thus, I feel that water should always be treated as a human right and not a commodity as peoples' lives depend on it and it should not be in the hands of others. The worst case is when there is a rich person that is especially selfish. He can just increase the price of water and this would cause many people to suffer. Would you really want people to suffer just because of these selfish people? As humans, we should always spare a thought for other humans, and we should put ourselves into their shoes, and that is what makes us humans and that is also what we call humanity. We all have feelings and making water as a commodity would definitely cause some people to rebel, as they would then be fighting for their own lives. Well then, should we really treat water as a commodity even after knowing that the poorer people would definitely suffer?