Water: a very valuable commodity

Rather than worrying about the planet heating up or the oil running out, we should concentrate on a more pressing matter, says Brian Durrant: water shortages.

As the chattering classes worry about the implications of global warming in the second half of the 21st century, they should be reminded of more pressing priorities. The Stern Report estimates that it will cost $450bn a year to avert the worst consequences of climate change. This is an enormous amount of money to spend on a hypothesis that has achieved a political consensus before a scientific consensus. Let us consider the more immediate concern: water.

About 1.3 billion people - that's a fifth of the world population - still do not have access to clean water, while 2.5 billion or near 40% lack adequate sanitation facilities. Asia alone accounts for two-thirds of the people worldwide whose drinking water comes from unsafe sources like rivers and ponds. Instead of spending huge sums lowering the remote risks of climate change, it is feasible that spending $75bn a year (one sixth of the sum earmarked as necessary to deal with climate change) would give everyone clean drinking water, sanitation and basic health care now.

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Brian has contributed to MoneyWeek with his expertise in investment strategy, for example how to quadruple your dividend income and how to navigate through the stock market in the 2008 financial crisis. He’s also touched on personal finance such as the housing market and the UK economy.