Should unlimited running water be free for everyone?

Question

I don’t know a lot about this so interested in everyone’s views.  There are definite pros and cons of water being free and water being privatised.
As water is a basic human right, how do we make sure everyone has access to it without having to pay for it? 
However having it free places no value on water and people think it will never run out.

Accepted Answer

See here's the fun part, in america, everyone does have free access to water - you are, theoretically, at least, allowed to dump dunk a bucket in any publicly owned body of water anywhere. 
It's the purification that we pay for. If we didn't pay for it as a utility, we'd pay for it as taxes. 
There's also a finite amount of purified water you can get in many places. Saying anyone should have free and unlimited access to what they want is how you get politicians wanting to pump the Great Lakes down to Arizona, which is a terrible idea. It's also how you get ignorant people that would just run their sprinklers all the damn time, largely wasting it. 
I'd rather see:
Local governments stop passing rules against collecting rainwater
More severe limitations on corporate removal for distribution (bottled water companies)
Rules allowing homeless and at risk populations to receive a certain amount of water without charge at a specific non-intimidating place, such as libraries for instance. 
Local governments to have policies *in place* on what happens to families when utilities are shut off and first considerations during emergencies (like a pandemic), instead of a month or two in when people are already behind paying. 
A bigger use of grey water for things like toilets, especially in public restrooms, reducing the amount of purification needed (and lowering costs overall).

Answer

No, I don't. I think water should be free for basic use (so they do their calcs on how much a person uses for basics) and then you pay. It actually worked that way here for a long time, your household would get x amount of litres per month then get billed if you go over that threshold.

Answer

I think it should be free but not unlimited.  Unlimited free water would have people overusing it, creating an issue of running out of water. We all need to limit our water usage anyway, the earth cannot sustain us forever if we don't.

Answer

I think that towns and cities shouldn’t be able to shut off your water if you don’t pay your bill. And I think it should as affordable as possible. Free water would be nice but I don’t know how feasible that it is.

Answer

Free as in tax supported so it’s more equitably accessible? Yes. Absolutely. No one should have to live in fear of having their supply of potable water cut off.

Answer

It should be affordable but not free/unlimited. Water treatment is costly but also incredibly necessary to our health.

Answer

It would be nice, but no, not if it’s supplied from a city or town well. We have our own personal well so we don’t pay for it and I must admit, it’s wonderful. But when you get city or town water, you pay for convenience and maintenance that you don’t necessarily worry about with your own well.

Answer

The upkeep of that system costs and the money has to come somewhere.
You know, that if you have your own house (probably not in town), you can put in a well and your water is free. But if you live in town or a city, and use the piping system, then that has to coat something, otherwise the system can't be kept up.

Answer

I don’t think it should be “unlimited” since this is a limited resource. It should have a fair price on it to avoid waste. It could cause deaths. 
This isn’t an attack on the poor. There should be a living wage for that, but that’s a different discussion. Water is pretty affordable as it is.

Answer

My water bill is pretty outrageous, so it’d be nice if it was lower. But they don’t shit mine off if you’re late either, they just levy it to my tax bill at the beginning of the year if I don’t make it by a certain cut off date. I’ve had to utilize that before. If it was free and unlimited, people would way over-use.

Should unlimited running water be free for everyone?

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