Water: A Difficult Solution?

When I think about water security and overall consumption of water there are a lot of things that come to mind. Water is a basic human need and I think that everyone should have easy access to safe, clean, and healthy drinking water. However, the main thing that resonates with me in regards to this topic is the idea of putting a price on water and the potential ramifications that can arise from this action. I definitely believe that major corporations that use hundreds of gallons upon hundreds of gallons should be charged and taxed significantly for this careless use of something that is not of infinite commodity #water. But, I think it is very hard to assign water as a “free” resource for regular individuals using water for drinking and cleaning purposes. The argument for having “free water” access for every individual (except large corporations) is somewhat faulty because I believe it would not necessarily reduce the over consumption and conservation of water that we need to focus on in order to increase longevity of our future, as a society. I think it is necessary to provide a sufficient amount of clean and healthy water to where it is needed, but to go to the extent of saying water should be valued as a free resource is the wrong approach. Furthermore, I think drastically increasing the prices we pay on drinking water, hydro bills, and water in general is not the solution either, as we would likely see a major influx in cost of other basic needs such as cost of food. As we can probably guess, that would significantly depreciate our quality of life. So what is the happy medium? How can this imbalance be intervened? These are difficult questions to answer, but i think it comes down to governments and major corporations working together to not only increase the price of water in wasteful situations (such as for production purposes) but also allow access to clean and healthy water for individuals at an efficient cost for the individual but at a sufficient cost that values water effectively so that we are conscious that water is not an endless commodity.