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if you want to think about the interactions between states and water supply, you need to consider what access to water was like before, say, the middle part of the 19th century. or what sewage disposal was like. without state action in the construction of infrastructure, not only would the lives of human beings be much shorter, but there'd be no capitalism. the construction of water and sewage systems were among the largest-scale public works projects of the period.
railways, water systems, electrification, roads/highways. none of these arrived with nature.
obviously state action was conditioned by the same kind of factors that private action are conditioned by---the class structure. so you could say that water is a weapon i suppose. but it is the case that it's far MORE of a weapon when it's privately controlled.
just look at the problems that were created by world bank/imf attempts to privatize water supplies during the (thankfully dissipating but not fast enough) neo-liberal period.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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