Dystopian is “water was free so the big farming business pumped the aquifer dry and exported the agricultural goods. Now people here have no water and the land is a desert”.

This stuff is economics 101.

The full quote is:

“”Soren Bjorn, a senior executive at Driscoll’s who in January will become the chief executive, said in an interview that he “absolutely” sees the region as a model of water pricing that could be replicated in water-stressed regions from Texas to Portugal. “Water can’t be free anywhere, because you can’t run a sustainable water supply without pricing it,” he said. “That would apply to the globe." “”