Fresh water is crucial for basically all of the creatures, so as human beings. However, as it is such a fundamental component to our society, we are charging too little on water and this vulnerable resource is wasted in some parts of the world while we are suffering from fresh water shortage.
To make people realize the urgency of water shortage and persuade people to save water. A reform in water pricing system might be applied. It doesn’t mean that our water price would sky-rocket, it only means while we guarantee the basic needs of water for ordinary people, we charge more one the luxury uses of water.
Here are some addition things to consider while making the policy:
the total assets of the family (could base on community housing price, annual income, tax paying situations)
the number of people living in the family
Contributions to the society (the ratio and amount of tax payed by family members, their job attributes:e.g. social service jobs)
Based on the living conditions of the person and the family, variable of water price could be applied to the entire society to make sure everyone is guaranteed to use enough water while not wasting.
Hi Zhaochen I totally agree with your idea that we need to reconsider the water pricing but also guarantee the basic amount at the same time. I really like your suggestion on the extra things that we need to consider, and in fact it must be really complicated to make the policy fair for everyone.
I think this is a great point! A lot of the issues is that we do not treat water as a valuable resource within the context of how much water is actually influencing the products and livelihoods we have. Properly understanding this, assessing our needs and planning for the future in terms of water availability will be so important in the times to come.
If I were charged more for my water consumption, I would definitely be more mindful of how much of this precious resource I use. I think your idea to price water based on income is absolutely fair. Plus, your idea to consider water pricing on a person's contributions to society is a very original. Awesome post!
Hey Zhaochen, I strongly agree that water has become such a vulnerable resource. A sense of urgency really is needed, which I think stems from a combined lack of awareness/ knowledge. Hopefully once that root issue is slightly improved, the wonderful implementations you suggested could roll out smoothly, as I think they would work very well in persuading people to value water more. :)
Hello Zhaochen, your governmental intervention through means of reform and policy making could have not been said any better!!! Specifically, you're"additional things to consider when policy making" are great. When composing my post I wanted to include something in it that touched base on these points, but i couldn't seem to word it properly. However, you captured everything that needs to be said, when forming that new policy. Thank you!
This is a great idea to make people more aware of how valuable water is! If water price was dependent on the household, the people living there would be more mindful of how they used their water to save money.