Leaders | Water

The dry facts

Water is scarce because it is badly managed

“THOUSANDS have lived without love; not one without water,” observed W.H. Auden. He omitted to add that, as with love, many people have a strong moral aversion to paying for the life-sustaining liquid. Some feel that water is a right, and should therefore be free. Others lobby governments to subsidise its distribution to favoured groups. All this results in vast and preventable waste.

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “The dry facts”

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