International tensions around water are rising in many of the world's most volatile regions. The policy recipe pursued by the West, and imposed on governments elsewhere, is to pass control over water to private interests, which simply accelerates the cycle of inequality and deprivation. California, as well as China, South Africa, Mexico and countries on every continent already face a crisis. This book exposes the enormity of the problem, the dangers of the proposed solution and the alternative, which is to recognize access to water as a fundamental human right, not dependent on ability to...

Global water consumption is doubling every 20 years, much faster than population growth. Water supplies, such as the huge Ogallala aquifer under the American mid-west, on which the country's grain basket depends, are drying up or being polluted, and international tensions around water are rising inexorably in many of the world's most volatile regions.

In her bestselling books Blue Gold and Blue Covenant, world-renowned water activist Maude Barlow exposed the battle for ownership of our dwindling water supply and the emergence of an international, grassroots-led movement to reclaim water as a public good. Since then, the United Nations has recognized access to water as a basic human right but there is still much work to be done to stem this growing crisis.
In this major new book, Barlow draws on her extensive experience and insight to lay out a set of key principles that show the way forward to what she calls a...