The book begins by pointing out that humanity is polluting, diverting and depleting the Earth’s finite water resources at a dangerous and steadily increasing rate, and that high-technology solutions are making things worse. The author says: “…close to two billion people now live in water-stressed regions of the planet. Further, unless we change our ways, by the year 2025 two-thirds of the world’s population will face water scarcity.” She also points out that there is a huge gulf between the First World and the Third World in water use.

Sensing profit in scarcity, corporate groups have moved in, and the second chapter traces the growth of private-sector control over what was formerly regarded as a public resource, assisted by the rise of a neo-liberal market-based ideology, and with the active support of the First World governments, international financial and other institutions (the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank, the U.N. bodies and the World Trade Organisation) and new water-related institutions such as the Global Water Partnership, the World Water Council, and so on. An account of the aggressive promotion of the privatisation of water at the Second, Third and Fourth World Water Forums (The Hague, Kyoto and Mexico) is given. Although water privatisation has (as the author argues) been a complete failure, she notes that the big water companies have succeeded in setting the stage “for the complete commodification of the world’s water and the conditions for the creation of a global corporate-owned water cartel.” The next chapter captioned “The Water Hunters Move in” sets forth the process of capture of water resources by companies in some detail and argues that the corporate takeover of water deepens the global water crisis.

The hopeful part begins with the next chapter “Water Warriors Fight Back”. It points out that “a fierce resistance to the corporate takeover of water has grown in every corner of the globe, giving rise to a coordinated and…surprisingly successful water justice movement.” It then proceeds to give an account of the movements in several countries in different parts of the world. It draws attention to the emergence of a global water justice movement, and the role that civil society groups have played in presenting this perspective forcefully at various important international gatherings. The account includes some inspiring stories. In conclusion the chapter points out that “the movement has forced open a debate over the control of water and challenged the Lords of Water who had set themselves up as the arbiters of this dwindling resource.”

The final chapter takes note of water-related conflicts within countries and between countries, points out that water is becoming a global security issue, and offers an alternative water future. It outlines a “blue covenant” with three components (water conservation, water justice, water democracy), and proceeds to discuss the progress of the right to water, “an idea whose time has come.”

To sum up, the first three chapters of the book tell a grim, depressing and frightening story, but chapters four and five dispel the gloom (at least partly) and offer a degree of hope through their accounts of the battles fought by the water warriors, some of them remarkably successful, and of the progress of the idea of the right to water.

Being in substantial agreement with the argument of the book, this reviewer has no serious criticisms to offer. He is particularly pleased and encouraged to find that his own thinking and advocacy in his book Towards Water Wisdom: Limits, Justice, Harmony find support and corroboration in this book.

In passing, a minor point may perhaps be made. The author is a trenchant critic of the current economic and technological thinking about water, but she tends to use certain terms which have gained currency and have a partial validity but carry some dangers: for instance, “water crisis”, “dwindling water resources”, “water stress”, “water availability per capita”, “virtual water” and so on. From these same terms others tend to draw conclusions and prescriptions very different from the author’s. The reservations one has in mind cannot be elaborated here. Interested readers are referred to this writer’s book referred to above and to his article “Water: A Critique of Three Concepts” in the Economic and Political Weekly.

That point does not seriously detract from the power and cogency of the argument of the book. This book, like the earlier one, needs to be widely read, and one hopes that the two together will have a major influence on the thinking about water all over the world.

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