Can anyone really own water?

This was the central question raised in Irena Salina’s brilliant documentary, “Flow.”

The matter was examined is several ways, from detailing a Michigan community’s fight to stop Nestlé from bottling their river water, to exposing the ways Bolivia’s water supply was privatized and degraded by international water corporations.

The film sometimes felt like an exposé on human suffering, much of which appeared to be caused by for-profit water corporations. According to the film’s Web site, “Water is a $400 billion global industry; the third largest behind electricity and coal.” In many impoverished nations, privatization of water was never presented to the people as an option, but they were the ones to suffer the consequences.

Disheartening were the stories told in which the poorest, most desperate people on earth were ignored, taken advantage of and deceived. Massive increases in water costs post-privatization forced impoverished African children to drink the same water that killed their mother, as well as a deadly Bolivian citizen uprising.

The opportunity for the richest people in the world to exploit and profit from those most desperate exemplifies the reason why, despite the fact that it can be, water should not be owned.

Sadly, the images are painful realities for a staggering number of people. According to the film, 1.1 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water.

That means one out of every six humans does not have access to safe water. Need something closer to home? Assuming an enrollment of 69,000 people, that would equal 11,500 ASU students. Would we ever accept that for our own students or citizens?

Arizonans living in a hot desert climate have water parks, lush green lawns and sparkling pools, and, according to Food and Water Watch, Americans spent $10 billion on bottled water in 2005 alone. Yet, a staggering 1.1 billion people must risk their lives by drinking contaminated water simply to stay alive.

That kind of fatal contradiction should be non-existent.

And we can make it non-existent. As indicated on the film’s Web site, we can sign the petition to adopt Article 31 to the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which would establish, “access to clean water as a fundamental human right.”

I personally think we should take action beyond signing a petition. We should make more thoughtful choices about what we do with our water and think seriously about what having safe access to the very essence of life means to us.

If we aren’t willing to accept deadly bacteria infested or toxic waste contaminated water for our children and ourselves, why should we be willing to accept it for anyone else?

Access to clean, safe water is not a privilege — it’s a right that should be universally secured.

Reach Becky at rrubens1@asu.edu.