Sustainable Water Alliance
Contents
Introduction
The Sustainable Water Alliance was put together over the year between 2008-2009 by Global Water Intelligence and its publisher Christopher Gasson [1]. Its purpose is clear: to campaign and lobby for water markets and a proper value to be placed on water. Christopher Gasson asserts if 'a viable water economy were allowed to develop' then the poor would then be able to access 'low-cost and disease-free water'.
In their own Words...
"The Sustainable Water Alliance is a group of people who believe that promoting the value of water is the key to solving the world's water crisis.
It is our planet's most valuable asset: without it, Earth would be a sterile rock hurtling through space. With it, we have life. The problem is that we don't look after it.
Water needs investment - more so than almost any other everyday commodity - but the amount of money going into treating and distributing water around the world is falling far behind the requirements of our growing population.
Water needs conservation. We cannot go on using water so freely without inviting disaster on a global scale.
If we are to reverse these trends, we must change the public perception of the value of water. For too long it has been considered a free gift from God to be used and abused as we choose. But we live in an economic world, and things which are considered free are also worthless. Water has to have a value if there is to be any incentive to save it and invest in it.
The Sustainable Water Alliance is about promoting that value" [2].
There is much to agree with here, but their solution: only a true value of water can and will solve crisis of unequal supply and scarcity is unsubstantiated throughout the website. Moreover, despite their attempt at a theoretical justification of a 'true and proper' value of water the perception remains: that such initiatives are more about their own interests than those of the poor.
People
No other person or organisation is credited with involvement. As such one could conclude that the Sustainable Water Alliance has not yet gained mass support nor even garnered support from the grass roots and poor whose interests it puprports to be working for.
Website
References
- ↑ Global Water Intelligence Journal, March 2009,
- ↑ About the SWA Accessed 22 May 2009,
