Water For Sale.

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Privatizing things that we once had for free… the thing is, this already happens in certain areas. Here in Lagos, there are roads that you can’t access without paying a toll. It’s kind of like a subscription. You can pay for a day, a month, or even a year. There’s one at Ikeja, and there’s the popular tollgate at Lekki. This money that so many motorists pay, where does it go? To the government? To a private account?

And for water, at one time or the other, we’ve all had to buy water. And I’m not talking about table water for drinking. I mean normal water that we can fetch for mundane things like laundry, shower, and the like. Growing up, we once lived in a house where there was no water, which meant we had to go to a neighboring water to fetch. And this came at a cost. At the time, I think it was one jerrycan for N10. Not sure anymore, hehe.

As far as I’m concerned, that is buying water. However, the scope of today’s topic is basically asking us how it would be if all water was privatized. There could be good sides to this. There was a time when we could comfortably drink tap water, or even well water. They were always so clean that we could see the bottom of the well. That was how clean they were.

However, that’s no longer the case. If you dare to drink tap water these days, you’re already setting yourself up for a stint at the emergency ward. Drinking untreated water can cause you major sicknesses, which was why everyone switched to premium table water. From sachet water to bottle water, we all made the switch.

My point is… if water gets privatized, then the company in charge might be incentivized to properly treat the water and make it more conducive. Because if we can go back to the days of drinking tap water and well water, we’d be taking care of a major pollution problem. More than 90% of the plastic that litters the streets and drains today are empty bottles of water and sachets of pure water. So, this could go a long way for us.

But, I don’t think these benefits are good enough for such a risky endeavor. The mere cost of building good roads and treating water to the point where they’re safe for drinking is really expensive! And I know for a fact that when companies take on such lofty projects, they won’t turn around to be charging peanuts. They will want to make all their money back, one way or another.

Companies will only be going in for the profits, the wellbeing or the pockets of customers would be the last thing on their mind. Look at what we’re being faced with today, all the network providers in Nigeria suddenly increased their tariff. They increased the cost of data and even increased the rate at which it burns. So, even though 1gig is not the same price as it used to be, it still doesn’t last as long as it used to. That’s what companies do, they only want your money, and everything else can be damned!

This is something that we see everywhere, landlords increasing their rents exorbitantly for no reason, drivers hiking their fares just because there are dark clouds in the sky… people will always want to know the best way to take more money from others. And they will pounce on it with vengeance. So, if such a ruling is done, we’re done for indeed. Because there is no way this would ever be for our good.

It’ll just be another way to enslave the people to the unforgiving system.

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_{Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below, I would love to know what you’re thinking. Till we meet in the next post.}

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_{This post is inspired by the third topic of this week which is Private Industry. Feel free to try it out.}

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_{N.B: All images used in this post are mine. The thumbnail was designed using Canva.}

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