Most people agree that water is an extremely valuable resource—for farmers who depend on it to grow crops, for factories that need it to cool machines and spin turbines and, of course for life itself. But unlike most other valuable resources, it’s hard to place a price on water . The very fact that water is so important to people, economies, and the environment means that it is tough to even agree on a common way of valuing it. No less an economic mind than Adam Smith was stumped by this challenge.
