O Preço da Água

Rodrigo Constantino

A revista The Economist desta semana tem uma matéria de 16 páginas sobre a água, o recurso mais valioso do planeta. No editorial da revista, constam algumas medidas (abaixo) que poderiam melhorar o equilíbrio entre oferta e demanda. Cerca de 70% do uso da água ocorre na agricultura, que conta com grandes subsídios do governo em vários países. Por este motivo, há muito desperdício e ineficiência no seu uso. A água tem muito valor, mas preço baixo, pois não há mercado livre para este bem. Eis a principal mudança necessária para maior preservação e uso racional da água no planeta.

"Although the supply of water cannot be increased, mankind can use what there is better—in four ways. One is through the improvement of storage and delivery, by creating underground reservoirs, replacing leaking pipes, lining earth-bottomed canals, irrigating plants at their roots with just the right amount of water, and so on. A second route focuses on making farming less thirsty—for instance by growing newly bred, perhaps genetically modified, crops that are drought-resistant or higher-yielding. A third way is to invest in technologies to take the salt out of sea water and thus increase supply of the fresh stuff. The fourth is of a different kind: unleash the market on water-users and let the price mechanism bring supply and demand into balance. And once water is properly priced, trade will encourage well-watered countries to make water-intensive goods, and arid ones to make those that are water-light."