Billy wrote:
David, you still going to be able to grow a garden, after the
Americans buy up your water rights?
Yes
"Australia has privatized its water totally, and basically itıs now
for sale. And thereıs a big American investment firm thatıs actually
buying up water rights. It was supposed to be, originally, just to
get the farmers of the big farm conglomerates to share, to trade, but
now itıs all gone private and international, so theyıre hardly going
to support something that says that water, is a human right, when
theyıve commodified it and said itıs a market commodity."
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/2...declares_acces
s
This is a complex issue. The rights to the water that falls on the
catchment to public water supplies is broadly not for sale, the Government
holds onto that by excluding most of it from being a tradeable commodity.
In a city/suburban situation you can do whatever you like with the water
that falls on your property (and the grey water you generate provided you
don't poison people with it) but you cannot sell it.
In the rural situation (which is me) every property owner has a "harvestable
right". Roughly speaking you can impound and use 10% of the water that
falls on your land but not from permanent waterways. Additionally you can
extract from permanent waterways an unlimited amount for no cost for "bona
fide domestic purposes". So I could use that to grow whatever I like
provided it is not a commercial venture, this last constraint does in
practice limit how much you can extract. Neither of these rights are
saleable.
In addition I own a water licence which permits me to extract a specified
amount of water from permanent waterways per annum for a fairly nominal
cost. This licence is saleable but only applies to the specified catchment
so it is not possible to buy up water licences and use them wherever you
like.
It is essential for proper long term water management for water to be given
a genuine and realistic value at least in commercial quantities. In the
past it was pretty much free in all circumstances. What do people do with
a resource that is "free"? They over use it. I think you are familiar with
the phrase "the tragedy of the commons". So we have the absurdities of
growing rice and cotton in dryland areas by massive (and wasteful)
irrigation and more water being allocated from the Murray-Darling than is
actually available except in flood years. The sooner this water is given a
sensible value the sooner this kind of abuse will be gone.
As you can see the above quote is very misleading regarding the ownership of
water in Australia. As for the motivation of the Gov to not want to vote
for water as a basic right I have no clear idea but Oz does vote with
America on many issues for reasons that may have nothing to do with the
issue itself.
David