Climate change has been creating havoc with water systems in many areas of the world. Some people are finding increasingly difficult to gain access to water in numerous locations across the world. Sometimes I wonder if the time will come when, because of scarcity, the cost of water may probably spiral to a level that would create a situation where a vast amount of revenue would be earned by those who would be able to provide the commodity on a large scale.
It's already here! Companies like Coca-Cola and Nestle are making insane amounts of money. $13 BILLION USD a year and growing in bottled water sales in the USA alone. Like you said with climate change this is only going to make the situation around the world even worst, many places are going to have huge fresh water shortages. Water is very very close to being fully a commodity.
I can see this becoming a problem. Water problems are happening everywhere and it will probably only get worse. Bottled water is definitely a huge commodity right now where I live because the water has extremely high levels of lead and we are not able to use our water.
The mark of a people's civilization is the availability of water. Nations have even gone to war over water resources. But other than for commercial exploitation by the corporates you have mentioned, water is not likely to reach the value of oil any time soon. This is due to the fact that its abundant in oceans, seas and even underground. Therefore, it will continue to be cheap in the absence of value addition.
Water isn't exactly a non-renewable resource like oil so I think the comparison may be off. Unlike oil, which is completely depleted after you use it, water is recyclable. It may go off but it comes right back again. The issue is whether we may still have clean potable water in the next few decades seeing the way humans pollute the environment with their lifestyle and new inventions. Perhaps if inventors create more environment-friendly machines that help maximize scarce resources instead of harming the environment, then the future wouldn't be that bleak after all.
Water will never get to be as expensive as oil. There's enough water underground and people could get licenses to drill wells so they don't have to pay for it. And there's also the fact that new tech will make desalination of sea water cheaper . . . once we get that technology, water never will be expensive.
