The right thing to do is decouple the pricing of water from the economic justice. Let water have a market price. Send money to poor people, which they can use o

The right thing to do is decouple the pricing of water from the economic justice. Let water have a market price. Send money to poor people, which they can use on water or not water (it's crucially important that it's unrestricted money). You can even fund it with the extra revenue from the water sales. All the same benefits, but with less distortion. The value of money is that it enables markets; when markets fail poor people, instead of breaking the market (free parking in urban areas, rent control, etc), it's more beneficial for everyone to just give poor people money and let them participate.