Protecting the Environment & Feeding the World - Essay Example

Let us discuss why privatization of water or engagement of corporations is favorable for solving environmental problems. Privatization of Water: Good or Bad Before going into the discussion regarding privatization of water, let us get a better understanding of what this term actually is. As we all know, the world is facing water shortage and environmental problems these days, which have created many problems for the poor and unprivileged people. Barlow states, “The global water crisis has become a powerful symbol of the growing inequality in our world”.

Access to clean and safe water is one of the major concerns for most of the poor European people these days. Wealthy people have access to clean and pure water whereas poor people can only drink contaminated water, which is available to them from wells and local rivers. Water shortage creates many problems, such as, increase in the number of diseases, decrease in the economic and industrial progress, and increase in the number of early deaths. “The shortage of water helps to perpetuate poverty, disease and early death” (Segerfeldt).

However, the reality is that there is no water shortage at the global level. The problem lies with the management of available clean water. “We use a mere 8 per cent of the water available for human consumption” (Segerfeldt). Bad policies and poor management of resources are the main problems regarding the issue of water shortage. Governments of all European countries are taking proper steps to solve the problem of safe water shortage for the citizens. One of the best ways to solve environmental problems is privatization of water or greater engagement of corporations in the management of water resources.

“Water privatization usually refers to the control or maintenance of water systems and water resources by private entities” (Weagly). An example of water privatization is a company working with a local municipality in order to develop and maintain a wastewater treatment plant, which should be able to provide clean and quality drinking water to the people. There exist two different points of view regarding privatization of water resources. Experts raise their concerns based on different facts, water availability statistics, and future forecast of water resources.

Water resources have been in the control of public organizations since many decades but the fact is that those public organizations have not been able to overcome the issue of availability of safe water to the people. This is the reason why governments of some developed and poor countries have planned to prioritize the water resources in order to get good results. Supporters of water privatization believe that involvement of private water management companies in managing available water can improve the quality and cleanliness of drinking water.

“Private companies might also stress that they can increase efficiency, improve quality and sustain operations over a long period” (Weagly). I personally believe that if public organizations are unable to make good policies regarding management of water in a proper manner, then privatization of water is a best way to deal with the problem of shortage of clean water. Privatization brings many benefits to the local people, such as, availability of clean water, increase in the