Coming for the water

A couple of years or so ago, I was surprised to learn that Europe’s underground water resources were dwindling. We were using more water than nature was supplying and it was all going to end in tears and thirst unless we took action.

Now, I am beginning to have doubts there is a real crisis. Because in the past few weeks, there’s been a flurry of reports about initiatives aimed at better water management globally. For the common good.

As we all know, any call featuring a version of this phrase is almost invariably an attempt to focus more power in fewer hands, fondly known as centralisation. It looks like this latest attempt is especially serious if, for now, rather vague.

The “No time to waste” scenario is in progress. Water is getting more scarce. Food supply is under threat. We must manage water better. We must use it more wisely — and share it more generously. To that end, we must entrust the management of our water to those who know better than the average national government.

This water push is the latest piece of evidence that no angle shall remain unexploited in the quest for resource management centralisation. Resource control, after all, is as close to total control as any half-sane power junkie knows. And the junkies want this control — starting with plans to take away $700 billion from farmers and the rest of us.