Water Privatization

This article is about the misconception that bottled water is somehow safer than tap water. It goes on to say how tap water is held to higher regulations than bottled water but has begun to be privatized. Privatization has made rates go up 150 percent making some people unable to afford the basic necessity of water.
This article was originally published in 2005 in the Seattle Times. The debate is whether bottled water is actually good for the environment or not and whether or not the government should be responsible for provide a clean tap water source. It was an article published for a more liberal audience, hence the opinion that the government should provide its people with clean water rather than see it privatized.
1. Tone. The entire article is written in a tone that mocks big business and privatization. This helps the audience feel similarly about what the author is writing.
2. Rhetorical question. But how can bottled water be contaminated and still be sold in the U.S.? This creates for the audience the sense that their bottled water is unsafe and that somehow the United States is responsible for that.
3. Allusion. The author refers to a major recall of Perrier water. An analogy such as this which parallels the idea that bottled water is unsafe only solidifies this fact for the reader.
4. Overstatement. The author quotes the vice president of World Bank, "The wars of the next century will be about water." The truth is that water is an essential resource and will probably be fought over economically but combat will never actually take place. When the audience reads war they visualize hand to hand combat which they wish to avoid at all costs.
5. Diction. On page 149 when speaking of water privatization he uses the word whim to describe how businesses will treat water. Whim has a fanciful carefree meaning to it. It implies that businesses would not regulate how water is priced or cared for. Again this scares the audience into feeling that privatization is a bad thing.
6. Syllogism. Private companies are in the war and defense industry. These companies are also the ones buying into water. Therefor, Privatization of water is equal to starting war. It gives the audience the feeling that these companies will manipulate the world's water supply only for their own profit whether it be in selling the water or starting war and profiting from the other goods they produce.