[hueving]

There is a legitimate argument behind treating water as a market good like anything else. There is an incredible amount of waste due to water rights in California (e.g. Almond growing during droughts) because water isn't sold in an auction.

We obviously need some token amount guaranteed for drinking water. But the rest used for industrial and farming purposes should be auctioned by the government.

[madez]

I see the problems you describe, but if you sell the rights in auctions you once again boil it down to the one-dimensional metric of money. I think not just how much one is willing to pay, but also what it'll be used for, is relevant.