Access to clean water is a basic human right. Therefore every home should have a water supply that is provided free of charge. Do you agree or disagree?
Sample Response
Access to clean water is a basic human right. Nowadays, some people argue that every home should receive free water. From my perspective, I disagree with this opinion, because an unrestricted free water supply would inevitably lead towill give rise to water shortages and environmental pollution.
If people can obtain clean water at no costwithout any cost, they will gradually take it for granted, leading to excessive consumption. Such overconsumption would inevitablyThis overuse, in turn, may deplete water reserves and trigger shortages. Cape Town's 2018 "Day Zero" crisis, for example, showed how quickly a city can run dry once residents treat supply as unlimited. Moreover, such waste would place severe strain onplace an unbearable burden on sewage treatment systems, and the resulting overloadwhose overload could contaminate rivers and degrade the environment.
Beyond the household level, free water would also undermine water management at the national level. Given the uneven distribution of water resources, governments must plan and allocate supply carefully. If domestic consumption were to surge, industrial and agricultural users would face serious shortfalls, causing factory shutdowns, job losses, andcausing factory shutdowns, job losses and higher food prices across the economy.
Admittedly, providing cheaper water for every home is reasonable, since water is a necessity that no family should be denied. However, we should not jump to the conclusion that it must be free. Instead, governments can implement tiered tariffs based onlevy charges according to household income and offer subsidies to those who genuinely cannot afford their bills.
In a nutshell, low-income households should be given cheaper water to ease their financial strainrelieve their burden, but this does not mean that all restrictions should be lifted. Only by keeping a reasonable pricing systemprice signal can we protect the long-term security of society's water supply and ensure everyone's right to clean water.of society and of everyone's right to clean water.
Why this response received Band 8.0
The essay presents a clear, well-supported position against free water for all, using strong logical progression and relevant examples. Key strengths include precise vocabulary choices and flawless grammatical control throughout the response. To raise the writing further, refine the concession paragraph to integrate alternative pricing policies more smoothly into the main argument.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response clearly articulates a definitive stance against free water while offering fully developed, realistic arguments regarding sustainability and economics.
Elaborate slightly more on how targeted subsidies directly preserve the human right to clean water without triggering resource exhaustion.
Coherence and Cohesion
Paragraphing is logical and cohesive devices seamlessly guide the reader from cause-and-effect reasoning to counter-arguments and conclusions.
Vary cohesive transitions between the main body paragraphs to avoid relying on standard signals like 'Beyond the household level'.
Lexical Resource
A sophisticated array of topic-specific vocabulary and collocations is used with strong precision and natural style.
Incorporate even more nuanced vocabulary surrounding public policy and municipal infrastructure to further elevate academic register.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Sentence structures are varied, flexible, and completely free of grammatical or mechanical errors.
Maintain this exceptional level of grammatical precision while experimenting with advanced syntactic inversion where appropriate.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Access to clean water is a basic human right. Therefore every home should have a water supply that is provided free of charge. Do you agree or disagree?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.