This text comes as 31 countries face severe water stress and over one billion people lack access to clean water. It examines the policy recipe pursued by the West, and imposed on governments elsewhere, to pass control over water to private interests, and shows the dangers of this "solution".

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 recognise access to water as a fundamental human right, not dependent on ability to pay.

Part 1 The crisis: red alert
endangered planet
dying of thirst. Part 2 The politics: everything for sale
global water lords
emergent water cartel
global nexus. Part 3 The way forward: fightback
the standpoint
the way forward.