In Tucson, subsidies for rainwater harvesting produce big payoff
Rather than subsidizing this or that conservation solution, wouldn&#x27;t it be better to charge a price for water that reflects the actual cost of depleting the aquifer?  Like shipping water in from elsewhere?<p>Water is another tragedy of the commons.  Government often charges for the cost of piping the water from the source, as if the water source had no value itself.<p>Imagine if fish could be taken from the ocean for just the cost of taking it from the ocean.  Oh, wait.  That&#x27;s what we do!  And overfishing is also another tragedy of the commons in many populations.<p>It would be better if a water source was turned into a for-profit corporation with the all the users of the aquifer each entitled to a share of the profits based on past usage.  Then they&#x27;d break even if they keep their usage the same, but profit if they cut their usage.  New residents and companies would pay the market price for anything more than personal use, which nobody would have to pay for.<p>It would have to cover all the users of the aquifer.  Otherwise, those with cheap access to it will profit at everybody else&#x27;s expense.<p>That way, the people keep the water, nobody has to pay for personal use, but everybody has a built in incentive to avoid uses of water that aren&#x27;t worth using up the valuable resource.