Is There a Right to Water?

by Dr. Gerard Emershaw

The city of Detroit has been shutting off water to residents who have not paid their bills. Water in Detroit is provided by The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD), a non-profit organization that is forbidden under Michigan law from earning a profit but is also not subsidized by taxes. At least 7,000 Detroit homes had no running water as of the beginning of October 2014, and the DWSD plans to go back to shutting off water to residents who do not pay their bills—shuts offs at an expected rate of 400 per day. Judge Steven W. Rhodes at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan ruled that no basic human right to water exists. Therefore, the DWSD is legally being allowed to shut off water to Detroit residents. Given that the city of Detroit is desperately bankrupt, the city itself cannot afford to provide life-sustaining water to residents whose water is shut off by the DWSD.

Judge Rhodes is correct in stating that there is no right to water. The natural rights which human beings do possess are the rights to life, liberty, and property. Water—like homes, health care, jobs, money, WiFi, etc.—is a commodity and not a right. There is a finite amount of this commodity whereas the rights to life, liberty, and property are not finite. My rights to these cannot conflict with yours or anyone else’s. But my “right” to a finite commodity can conflict with yours. Especially in cases where there is simply not enough to go around for everyone.

It is undeniable that water is necessary for human beings to survive. But this does not mean that failing to provide the commodity of drinking water to a human being in any way violates his or her right to life. The right to life means that neither the government nor any private entities may deprive one of his or her life without due process. This negative right has nothing to do with the nonexistent positive right to water.

Water should be provided by for-profit private entities. There should be no restrictions on these entities as there is on the DWSD. However, as in most cases water utilities are natural monopolies (industries where it is most efficient for a single firm to provide the service), the federal government has a duty to provide some regulation. In the case of water, this would likely mean that water utilities would not be able to charge unconscionably high prices for water. But this would not entail that water utilities would have to provide the service to those who do not pay for it.

My new book The Real Culture War: Individualism vs. Collectivism & How Bill O’Reilly Got It All Wrong presents Emershaw’s Individualist State, a minarchist formulation of government in which the vast majority of property—including utilities—are privately owned. Emershaw’s Individualist State does not allow the government to place high taxes and burdensome regulations on businesses. Therefore, such a society is highly likely to be far more affluent than the semi-socialist society of the contemporary United States. There would be few if any communities like Detroit that have been destroyed by heavy-handed government action and corporatist crony capitalism. Far fewer individuals would be unable to afford to pay for water, and there would be far more private charities and mutual aid societies to help any who had fallen through the cracks and found themselves unable to afford water. While a fiscally responsible federal government along with fiscally responsible state and municipal governments would not allow entire cities to fall into impoverished chaos as is happening in Detroit, widespread poverty could nevertheless still strike especially in emergency situations. In such cases, it is the duty of the government at the municipal, state, and federal government to ensure that a state of unrest does not occur which would threaten the life, liberty, and property of residents. However, this does not entail that any government indefinitely pay the water bills of thousands of individuals. If one cannot pay one’s water bill, then one cannot afford to live in the residence. In a case such as Detroit where 24,000 or more may have their water shut off, the possibility of unrest is great. Government may need to intervene until the crisis passes. Responsible night-watchmen governments at the municipal, state, and federal levels would have prevented this crisis in the first place. Unfortunately, Detroit may prove to be a microcosm of wider problems that will face the United States soon as a result of progressive anti-business government practices and the corporatist crony capitalism that collectivist forms of government inevitably create.

(For a much more detailed discussion of natural rights as well as a detailed presentation of Emershaw’s Individualist State, read my new book The Real Culture War: Individualism vs. Collectivism & How Bill O’Reilly Got It All Wrong. Available now on Amazon in both print and Kindle.)