Clean water access is a fundamental human necessity, and water should be supplied with no costs associated with it. I personally disagree with this stance, because purifying water is a very expensive process and providing it free of charge would cause huge amounts of waste.
Although over 70 percent of the earth’s surface is covered with water, the access to clean water is scarce and expensive. The process of purifying sea water undergoes multiple stages, with huge desalination plants and expensive chemicals involved. For instance, the desalination plant in the UAE was built with over a billion dollars, requiring constant supervision from experts. As a result, subsidizing this huge amount of money would put a huge burden on the economy, and would require heavy taxation on other goods.
In addition, it is observed that people often waste things which they gain access for free. It is a common human nature to disregard things for which they don’t have to pay money. For example, a recent survey in Norway where access to clean water is free, revealed that over 60 percent of people waste water while washing, cooking and taking a shower, accounting for over 3 billion cubic liters of water annually. Therefore, providing water free of charge would lead to a huge amount of waste of both resources and economy.
In conclusion, while clean water is a basic human right, I personally believe providing it free of charge would result in massive amounts of waste and a burden on government financially.