Wall Street Owns Your Water; You Just Don’t Know It Yet

They’ll be selling it to the highest bidder

Photo by Ross Stone on Unsplash

I live near Lake Superior — the big lake that holds 10% of the world’s freshwater. Last year, a company tried to open a bottling plant to sell the water. Residents revolted, and it was shot down… for now.

In Cibola, AZ, the Colorado River flows along the city’s edge after having provided some 40 million people with their water needs. But the river is drying up, so investment firms have moved in to buy land along the river that comes with water rights. Those Wall Street firms are splitting off the water rights and selling them separately from the land, usually to developers. Local officials are rebelling, but they will probably lose.

A retired resident who is losing her water source in another Arizona town, Rio Verde Foothills, described her experience in this article: “Every time I brush my teeth, I think, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t imagine that I’m not going to have water to brush my teeth,’” Deangelis told CNN… “To think, I have this beautiful home and I’m not going to be able to live here because water is not going to be approved and provided to my home is just incredibly unnerving and stressful.”