Ben Franklin famously noted, “When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water.”

It would be equally true to state that in the midst of a catastrophic flood, we know water’s cost. Most of the time, of course, we live our lives between those two extremes, needing sufficient water to comfortably live our lives and figuring out how to deal with a damp basement.

Cecil Bothwell

Clean, potable water is something we pretty much take for granted in modern America, and we are often disgruntled when a mishap interferes with its regular delivery. A dry well, a burned out pump, street repairs or a burst pipe may inconvenience us for hours or days, and cost more than we prefer to pay for a necessary staple of life.

Viewed globally, Asheville is more and more an exception rather than the rule in regard to water. We have entered a period of world-wide, permanent, de facto drought. This drought is partly due to climate change, but principally due to population growth.

There are 7 billion thirsty people out there, and not enough clean, fresh water to go around. Water is about to become a bigger political issue than oil, for the obvious reason that we can live without the latter when push comes to shove.

Water is essential to life.

The first modern war fought over water was the 1967 invasion by Israel which resulted in that country’s control of both banks of the Jordan River. More recently, China invaded Tibet to take control of the Himalayan headwaters of the Yellow River, and conflict over water is surely destined to ratchet up in coming decades.

Around the globe, major corporations, particularly Coca-Cola and Veolia, are working to privatize water systems and the American Legislative Exchange Council, a Republican lobbying and think tank group, has made privatization of public water one of its specific goals. ALEC provides model legislation to GOP state legislators across the country, who then push for local implementation.

Here in Asheville, Rep. Tim Moffit, R-Arden, has been moving forward with ALEC’s agenda, and last spring introduced a bill in the N.C. General Assembly that would have wrested control of Asheville’s water system from the City and placed it in the hands of an independent authority. 

Due to public outcry, Moffitt modified his bill into a “study,” under which he has now convened a committee to examine the operation of our water system and determine whether it should be taken from citizen control. He has assured the city that it would be compensated, somehow, if that should occur.

Any step away from the current accountability of the Water Department to the citizens and customers would be a step closer to privatization, and it is at least ominous that Moffitt also chairs a committee which has been explicitly discussing privatization of government functions, including water. 

It is my view that Asheville’s citizens should be on high alert, letting Moffitt and other Republican legislators know that we will fight to retain control of our precious resource.

No amount of money will compensate us for loss of our water system to private control. When the water is piped over the mountains to higher bidders in the Piedmont, to South Carolina or to Atlanta, it will no longer be a source for our future economic growth.

Asheville, which today has one of the most reliable and pure water sources in the world, could be left high and dry and terribly, terribly thirsty.

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Cecil Bothwell, a member of Asheville City Council, is a candidate for Congress in North Carolina’s 11th District.