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The Price of Thirst: Global Water Inequality and the Coming Chaos
“There's Money in Thirst,” reads a headline in the New York Times. The CEO of Nestlé, purveyor of bottled water, heartily agrees. It is important to give water a market value, he says in a promotional video, so “we're all aware that it has a price.” But for those who have no access to clean water, a fifth of the world's population, the price is thirst. This is the frightening landscape that Karen Piper conducts us through in The Price of Thirst —one where thirst is political, drought is a business opportunity, and more and more of our most necessary natural resource is controlled by multinational corporations. In visits to the hot spots of water scarcity and the hotshots in water finance, Piper shows us what happens when global businesses with mafia-like powers buy up the water supply and turn off the taps of people who cannot border disputes between Iraq and Turkey, a “revolution of the thirsty” in Egypt, street fights in Greece, an apartheid of water rights in South Africa. The Price of Thirst takes us to Chile, the first nation to privatize 100 percent of its water supplies, creating a crushing monopoly instead of a thriving free market in water; to New Delhi, where the sacred waters of the Ganges are being diverted to a private water treatment plant, fomenting unrest; and to Iraq, where the U.S.-mandated privatization of water resources destroyed by our military is further destabilizing the volatile region. And in our own backyard, where these same corporations are quietly buying up water supplies, Piper reveals how “water banking” is drying up California farms in favor of urban sprawl and private towns. The product of seven years of investigation across six continents and a dozen countries, and scores of interviews with CEOs, activists, environmentalists, and climate change specialists, The Price of Thirst paints a harrowing picture of a world out of balance, with the distance between the haves and have-nots of water inexorably widening and the coming crisis moving ever closer.
296 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2014
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May 5, 2017
Karen Piper is a geography professor and professor in post- colonial studies in English at the University of Missouri. Over a decade she travelled and studied to research the world's supply of water.
Water is the new oil. Cornering the supply of freshwater is profitable. Piper found that the World Bank lends money for giant dams, regardless of how many people or what ecology they displace. The IMF forced all countries in Europe looking for funds following the bank collapses, to agree to privatise their water supplies. Why are they forcing the world's freshwater into the hands of a small number of companies? She found that only a few firms control most of the world's dwindling water supply, and most of these are French, in a colonial move called development economics. One firm is listed 24th by the World Bank on the top moneymakers list; two places below Bank of America.
Lake Chad is about a third its original size, with water access a major source of conflict in the region, but this is not mentioned by Piper. She does explore how thirst and paying for water helped to bring about the collapse of the Egyptian government, with no urban planning in densely populated Cairo, on the banks of the Nile, where wealthy districts get services while poor ones get none. Wikileaks released CIA cables in 2010 stating that 30 - 40 million people here were living in inconceivable poverty.
Countries from America to India are rapidly depleting aquifers too fast to replenish. Farmers need water, more so the higher in the food chain their product. Desert countries exporting fruit are exporting water. Industries also require water. Glaciers are melting fast and the rivers they feed, from the Himalayas in particular, will soon run dry; China is already diverting a major Indian river northwards for its own use. Polluted water sources, and water outlets into the sea, are common.
Populous South Africa had, in 2004, more than 10 million people's water supply cut off by the firm Suez, while others were unable to afford the seven dollar fee to be connected. She found a vast shanty town completely unsanitary, with just two toilets, and coin-operated water fountains. Beer is cheaper than water. Giving money to the government or NGOs won't help, as they have no control over water supply.
Overall this look at water is a sobering one, with money looming large on every page. We are told briefly that pipes, reservoirs, treatment plants and other water facilities cost money, most of these structures having suffered governmental neglect for decades while populations grew. However, we are also told that when a water supply service is privatised the first thing that happens is that the price rises, then that a large amount of the workers are laid off. Scarcity increases value, and workers are an expensive nuisance. Piper does wonder what will happen when the vanishing middle class can no longer support the water network, as impoverished people do not make good customers.
"Someday the young people will rise up against this," an activist in India tells her, "but in the meantime, plant trees."
Water is the new oil. Cornering the supply of freshwater is profitable. Piper found that the World Bank lends money for giant dams, regardless of how many people or what ecology they displace. The IMF forced all countries in Europe looking for funds following the bank collapses, to agree to privatise their water supplies. Why are they forcing the world's freshwater into the hands of a small number of companies? She found that only a few firms control most of the world's dwindling water supply, and most of these are French, in a colonial move called development economics. One firm is listed 24th by the World Bank on the top moneymakers list; two places below Bank of America.
Lake Chad is about a third its original size, with water access a major source of conflict in the region, but this is not mentioned by Piper. She does explore how thirst and paying for water helped to bring about the collapse of the Egyptian government, with no urban planning in densely populated Cairo, on the banks of the Nile, where wealthy districts get services while poor ones get none. Wikileaks released CIA cables in 2010 stating that 30 - 40 million people here were living in inconceivable poverty.
Countries from America to India are rapidly depleting aquifers too fast to replenish. Farmers need water, more so the higher in the food chain their product. Desert countries exporting fruit are exporting water. Industries also require water. Glaciers are melting fast and the rivers they feed, from the Himalayas in particular, will soon run dry; China is already diverting a major Indian river northwards for its own use. Polluted water sources, and water outlets into the sea, are common.
Populous South Africa had, in 2004, more than 10 million people's water supply cut off by the firm Suez, while others were unable to afford the seven dollar fee to be connected. She found a vast shanty town completely unsanitary, with just two toilets, and coin-operated water fountains. Beer is cheaper than water. Giving money to the government or NGOs won't help, as they have no control over water supply.
Overall this look at water is a sobering one, with money looming large on every page. We are told briefly that pipes, reservoirs, treatment plants and other water facilities cost money, most of these structures having suffered governmental neglect for decades while populations grew. However, we are also told that when a water supply service is privatised the first thing that happens is that the price rises, then that a large amount of the workers are laid off. Scarcity increases value, and workers are an expensive nuisance. Piper does wonder what will happen when the vanishing middle class can no longer support the water network, as impoverished people do not make good customers.
"Someday the young people will rise up against this," an activist in India tells her, "but in the meantime, plant trees."
January 10, 2015
Author Karen Piper traces the political connections among governments, corporate interests, and organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to show that changing control of clean water from national or municipal governments to private companies who then treat it as a commodity that can be bought and sold to profit those in power has become a global problem. In nations where access to clean water has been privatized, the inequity of those who can actually receive water is astounding. Piper reveals that in 2001, five water companies--Suez, Veolia, Saur, Agbar, and Thames--controlled 73% of the world's privatized water, or water supplies managed by a multinational corporation for the purpose of making profit.
Piper looks at the history of water inequity and the role of a global water elite as stemming from European colonialism, a view that is rarely presented in the literature. She talks about the World Water Forum and its exclusivity, vetting out any persons or organizations that do not share its aims.
The author gives this example of privatization: "In 1989, for instance, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher privatized the British water supplier Thames Water--actually selling the water supply infrastructure (including property, plants, and equipment) on the open market. The company was then acquired first by German RWE and next by Macquarie of Australia, a global banking and investment firm. Today, China owns nine perceont of Thames Water, and another ten percent is owned by Abu Dhabi." This is just one instance of the buying and selling of private water companies; the average customer has no idea who is in control of the water being used for cooking and drinking. It gets even more complex when we look at the investment firms involved.
The interested reader should read widely about what is happening regarding our access to water. Karen Piper does an outstanding job in explaining this one aspect of the problem. If the crash in access to clean water becomes global, including even the United States as well it might for various shocking reasons, it would be helpful if more of us were paying attention before that happens!
Piper looks at the history of water inequity and the role of a global water elite as stemming from European colonialism, a view that is rarely presented in the literature. She talks about the World Water Forum and its exclusivity, vetting out any persons or organizations that do not share its aims.
The author gives this example of privatization: "In 1989, for instance, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher privatized the British water supplier Thames Water--actually selling the water supply infrastructure (including property, plants, and equipment) on the open market. The company was then acquired first by German RWE and next by Macquarie of Australia, a global banking and investment firm. Today, China owns nine perceont of Thames Water, and another ten percent is owned by Abu Dhabi." This is just one instance of the buying and selling of private water companies; the average customer has no idea who is in control of the water being used for cooking and drinking. It gets even more complex when we look at the investment firms involved.
The interested reader should read widely about what is happening regarding our access to water. Karen Piper does an outstanding job in explaining this one aspect of the problem. If the crash in access to clean water becomes global, including even the United States as well it might for various shocking reasons, it would be helpful if more of us were paying attention before that happens!
August 29, 2015
I stopped reading this book after several of the opening chapters. Water is a basic need for all life on earth, in future wars will be fought over clean potable water supplies as the world's population will continue to soar into the mid 21st century. This book seemed to be more concerned about the privatisation of water utilities in economically advanced countries and descended into a diatribe against private ownership and profit. We might have the luxury of this debate, but the 3rd world doesn't.
I read a review copy supplied by the publisher.
I read a review copy supplied by the publisher.
September 9, 2018
Unfortunately, this book from the get go has a biased word choice, and is trying to rouse emotions against big capital and elites-who-must-have-an-obvious-odious-agenda, instead of just giving the facts and letting me decide for myself.
Because of this tone of voice, I doubt the truth of what is written. After all, when one is biased like this one tends to paint one party too devilish, and the other too saintly.
Sorry I wasted money on this. I wanted the facts.
I advice to read Fred Pearce's 'When the rivers run dry'
Because of this tone of voice, I doubt the truth of what is written. After all, when one is biased like this one tends to paint one party too devilish, and the other too saintly.
Sorry I wasted money on this. I wanted the facts.
I advice to read Fred Pearce's 'When the rivers run dry'
September 4, 2015
It was sad to find out how many people are dying/suffering to due the corporate take over of water systems and because of our "profit over people" economic system mentality. Very informative though.
June 27, 2024
"By 2025, the proportion of people worldwide served by private water companies is predicted to reach 21 percent."
Yet:
"Studies [show] that corporate water management had actually reduced people's access to water in the past decade [as of 2009], thus pushing back the U.N. Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people without access to clean water by 2015."
...
The introduction outlines contrasting profiles of the "World Water Forum", an astroturfed corporate-funded gala and policy thinktank pushing profit-driven access to water, and the Forum Alternatif Mondial de l'Eau (FAME) or "Alternative World Water Forum", a splinter-group of activist running a counter-conference (including demonstrations targeted by---you guessed it---water cannons; the ruling class has a penchant for irony).
Crucially, it explores how "inequitable water distribution first became the norm under European colonialism, when a global 'water elite' began to emerge in places as far ranging as British India and South Africa." The "World Water Council" behind the forum is specifically, in large part, a revolving door for former colonial authorities.
While water service would be largely public by the mid-20th century in response to private industry's inability to provide disease-preventing universal access, the Reagan-Thatcher years saw weaponization of IMF loans to push through privatization. "In short, cholera killed the private water industry until neoliberalism popularized it again."
===
The first chapter explores the history of water management in California, where "large landowners have demonstrated enough political clout to have water directed their way." Agribusiness billionaires of the Boswell and Resnick families accrue massive profits from farming projects. The story of the Boswells is one of colonialism financed by slavery, when a cotton plantation owner's son moved west, and dams built to redirect water culminated in the stark legacy of a dust bowl where once there was the freshwater Tulare Lake ("Yokut [Native] villages were spread throughout the valley; before the land was levelled and drained by farmers, it was full of hills and water.")
More recently, however, in lieu of dams:
So, when drought hit in 1994, farmers came to push for the rights not only to the Kern Water Bank, but so-called "paper water", a sort of IOU for water diversion curtailed by environmental regulation restrictions.
Imperialism outside the 'core' rears its head in chapters on private control of water in Chile, Apartheid/South Africa, India, Egypt, and Iraq respectively, beginning in Chapter 2 with Chile:
On solutions, a familiar point worth engaging:
It is essential to appreciate the historical interlinking of colonialism and capitalist extractive practices in water management. Indigenous voices must be centered in building an alternative, and there is value in local community control of water. Having said that, the public/private dichotomy is very real, and it would 'delimit political thinking' to fail to imagine an alternative relationship between a democratic state and communities in respecting the natural place of water. The possibilities for this in a revolutionary context are not explored in this book, in lieu of patchwork "alternative economies".
This perspective shapes Chapter 3's account of South Africa's Water Apartheid. Piper relates the continuity of apartheid water management and what ecosocialist activists there call global economic apartheid (continuation of racialized neoliberal debt structuring privileged access to water). This contextualizes the argument that a mix of traditional indigenous practice and governmental assertion of resource sovereignty are necessary steps forward. While acknowledging the limits, I'd be hesitant to go too far along with some less balanced critiques of "actually existing socialist" resource management before engaging with Socialist States and the Environment: Lessons for Eco-Socialist Futures.
Chapter 4's account of urban and industrial projects in India shows the influence of the work of Mike Davis (Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World), outlining the dialectical tension between Gandhian "village association" with its legacy in the Chipko ("tree-hugger") and antidam movements, and traditional irrigation, versus Nehru and his inheritors' push for large-scale industrial projects ("Dams are the temples of modern India", Nehru declared). These environmentalist movements began out of necessity, with a "precedent in protests against British water policy."
Nevertheless,
===
On Egypt's "Revolution of the Thirsty" in Chapter 5:
Egypt's boom in luxury suburbs began in the 1990s with the first wave of privatization of government agencies and public land.
Meanwhile, "informal areas" of Cairo like Manshiyat Naser ("Garbage City") were left to draw from contaminated aquifers, connect to electricity illegally, and when a pipe bursts it's considered an opportunity for officials to sell water to cronies. (See Planet of Slums)
On the difficulties of management amidst revolutionary upheaval:
In short, if a clique of opportunists comes to direct resources to its own advantage, those who call for accountability to the masses will be purged. The position of international capital is crucial to this development:
Finally, Iraq in Chapter 6, where reconstruction is lucrative if you're an American corporation, but the greatest insult if you're Iraqi.
The history of U.S. construction firm Bechtel in Iraq offers some hints in tying imperial state actions to private reconstruction contracts:
The book closes with some "alternative solutions", fairly typical for a book like this. But the emphasis on small-scale and local solutions is a stark contrast to Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet, complicating that author's claims in ways there was no excuse not to engage with. In any case:
1. Stop climate change.
2. Stop throwing people off their land.
3. Recognize indigenous knowledge.
4. Revive small-scale and local solutions
5. Regulate the "virtual water" (water used for agriculture) market
6. Imagine alternative economies
7. Imagine an alternative water blueprint
8. Reform the globalization regime
Some miscellaneous highlights throughout:
Yet:
"Studies [show] that corporate water management had actually reduced people's access to water in the past decade [as of 2009], thus pushing back the U.N. Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people without access to clean water by 2015."
...
The introduction outlines contrasting profiles of the "World Water Forum", an astroturfed corporate-funded gala and policy thinktank pushing profit-driven access to water, and the Forum Alternatif Mondial de l'Eau (FAME) or "Alternative World Water Forum", a splinter-group of activist running a counter-conference (including demonstrations targeted by---you guessed it---water cannons; the ruling class has a penchant for irony).
Crucially, it explores how "inequitable water distribution first became the norm under European colonialism, when a global 'water elite' began to emerge in places as far ranging as British India and South Africa." The "World Water Council" behind the forum is specifically, in large part, a revolving door for former colonial authorities.
While water service would be largely public by the mid-20th century in response to private industry's inability to provide disease-preventing universal access, the Reagan-Thatcher years saw weaponization of IMF loans to push through privatization. "In short, cholera killed the private water industry until neoliberalism popularized it again."
The primary way corporations 'sell' water is by treating and delivering it. For this reason, increased water pollution means increased profit.
===
the so-called free market in water in California was an intensely negotiated (and corrupted) system set up jointly by the state, the U.S. government, and San Joaquin valley agribusiness.
The first chapter explores the history of water management in California, where "large landowners have demonstrated enough political clout to have water directed their way." Agribusiness billionaires of the Boswell and Resnick families accrue massive profits from farming projects. The story of the Boswells is one of colonialism financed by slavery, when a cotton plantation owner's son moved west, and dams built to redirect water culminated in the stark legacy of a dust bowl where once there was the freshwater Tulare Lake ("Yokut [Native] villages were spread throughout the valley; before the land was levelled and drained by farmers, it was full of hills and water.")
Franco [a Yokut historian] described the Boswells: "All of a sudden they owned the valley. So we were like, 'How can you own that valley?' 'It's real simple', they said, 'we have an army and you don't.'...Who are the people who are most powerful here? It's the ranchers and the big farmers like the Boswells. (Today, J.G. Boswell Jr.'s son, James Boswell, runs the business.)"
More recently, however, in lieu of dams:
A water bank is simply a belowground reservoir in which water is 'deposited' and from which it is 'withdrawn'...One of the benefits of this system is that it allows states to avoid building new dams for water storage. One of the detriments is that it has turned water into money.
So, when drought hit in 1994, farmers came to push for the rights not only to the Kern Water Bank, but so-called "paper water", a sort of IOU for water diversion curtailed by environmental regulation restrictions.
The emergence of water marketing was providing new opportunities to these farmers even as their land was becoming infertile.
One of the problems with the banking model is that it operates as an economic system and not an ecological one. So when the 'deposits' are withdrawn, the wetlands dry up and the neighbours' wells go dry.
Today, subsidized water thay Resnick receives from the state for an average of $30 per acre-foot can be sold back to the state for $200 per acre-foot.
Imperialism outside the 'core' rears its head in chapters on private control of water in Chile, Apartheid/South Africa, India, Egypt, and Iraq respectively, beginning in Chapter 2 with Chile:
Under the [Chilean] Water Code, glaciers cannot be bought and sold and are not defined as private property. But this was recently changed when the Canadian mining company Barrick Gold claimed it owned the glaciers on its land and intended to melt them in order to mine underneath them. After the local population protested...the company's plan to 'relocate' the glaciers was overturned in the courts. But while glaciers cannot be melted intentionally, the question remains as to who owns the...resources made available by 'inadvertent' melting due to climate change.
On solutions, a familiar point worth engaging:
Perhaps the lesson to be learned from both Chile and the United States is that the polarizing 'public versus private' debate model is not adequate for thinking about water, since this false dichotomy tends to delimit political thinking...Allowing 'multiple cultures' to flourish and provide alternative viewpoints would help to counteract the consolidation of water according to a centralized orthodox position controlled by those in power.
It is essential to appreciate the historical interlinking of colonialism and capitalist extractive practices in water management. Indigenous voices must be centered in building an alternative, and there is value in local community control of water. Having said that, the public/private dichotomy is very real, and it would 'delimit political thinking' to fail to imagine an alternative relationship between a democratic state and communities in respecting the natural place of water. The possibilities for this in a revolutionary context are not explored in this book, in lieu of patchwork "alternative economies".
This perspective shapes Chapter 3's account of South Africa's Water Apartheid. Piper relates the continuity of apartheid water management and what ecosocialist activists there call global economic apartheid (continuation of racialized neoliberal debt structuring privileged access to water). This contextualizes the argument that a mix of traditional indigenous practice and governmental assertion of resource sovereignty are necessary steps forward. While acknowledging the limits, I'd be hesitant to go too far along with some less balanced critiques of "actually existing socialist" resource management before engaging with Socialist States and the Environment: Lessons for Eco-Socialist Futures.
Chapter 4's account of urban and industrial projects in India shows the influence of the work of Mike Davis (Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World), outlining the dialectical tension between Gandhian "village association" with its legacy in the Chipko ("tree-hugger") and antidam movements, and traditional irrigation, versus Nehru and his inheritors' push for large-scale industrial projects ("Dams are the temples of modern India", Nehru declared). These environmentalist movements began out of necessity, with a "precedent in protests against British water policy."
Clearly, the postcolonial vision of India's leaders was not one of self-sufficient Gandhian villages but one of expanding urban slums.
Nevertheless,
people throughout India are...reviving the ancient systems of small dams and rainwater harvesting, despite laws against doing so.
===
On Egypt's "Revolution of the Thirsty" in Chapter 5:
The American media focused mainly on internal corruption and oppression. They did not report on the role of the international superpowers in influencing the Mubarak regime to privatize the country's public land and water.
Egypt's boom in luxury suburbs began in the 1990s with the first wave of privatization of government agencies and public land.
Meanwhile, "informal areas" of Cairo like Manshiyat Naser ("Garbage City") were left to draw from contaminated aquifers, connect to electricity illegally, and when a pipe bursts it's considered an opportunity for officials to sell water to cronies. (See Planet of Slums)
But revolutions do not happen unless people are capable of organizing, and by this point millions of Cairenes in extralegal communities had amassed decades of experience in self-organization.
On the difficulties of management amidst revolutionary upheaval:
Revolution, unfortunately, can provide new opportunities for corruption as the wealthy flee the country...Morsi's interim government provided...a period of relative chaos with a leader who was not schooled [in negotiating asset control]. But when Morsi became a threat to these machinations, he was simply thrown out by the military and declared a 'terrorist', along with the entire Muslim Brotherhood.
In short, if a clique of opportunists comes to direct resources to its own advantage, those who call for accountability to the masses will be purged. The position of international capital is crucial to this development:
Changing Egypt's unequal distribution of water may be nearly impossible in the face of a military and international financial forces greater than those of any president.
Finally, Iraq in Chapter 6, where reconstruction is lucrative if you're an American corporation, but the greatest insult if you're Iraqi.
The case of Iraq reveals one of the bleaker ways in which water privatization can be achieved: through force...The fact that the United States intentionally destroyed Iraq's civilian infrastructure remains undisputed, but the question of why has never been adequately addressed.
The history of U.S. construction firm Bechtel in Iraq offers some hints in tying imperial state actions to private reconstruction contracts:
A month after the war ended, Bechtel was already tasked with rebuilding in a contract worth up to $680 million...Bechtel did not complete these projects, perhaps because...in order for Bechtel to complete its contract obligations, the war needed to be over by May 1 [the day of President Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" declaration!].
The book closes with some "alternative solutions", fairly typical for a book like this. But the emphasis on small-scale and local solutions is a stark contrast to Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet, complicating that author's claims in ways there was no excuse not to engage with. In any case:
1. Stop climate change.
2. Stop throwing people off their land.
3. Recognize indigenous knowledge.
4. Revive small-scale and local solutions
5. Regulate the "virtual water" (water used for agriculture) market
6. Imagine alternative economies
7. Imagine an alternative water blueprint
8. Reform the globalization regime
Some miscellaneous highlights throughout:
In Europe, it seems the only way to get people to pay the "full cost" of water is through extrademocratic channels such as IMF or EU interventions.
Corporate website began suggesting that they had always supported water as a human right. This is not true...corporations had strategically decided to co-opt the language of the "rights" advocates in order to both neutralize and gain from it...Farhana Sultana and Alex Loftus have explained the results: 'The right to water risks becoming an empty signifier...with a shallow post-political consensus that actually does little to effect real change in water governance.'
Palestine will be a test case for how successful the U.N. "right to water" might be...The unconditional support the United States has given to Israeli water policies...is a source of strife around the world...Unfortunately, Israel has conflated water rights in the Occupied Territories with rights to territory and self-determination, arguing that the demand for water is a veiled demand for territory. At the same time, Israeli settlers in the Occupied Territories are clearly aware that there is no better way to drive people out of these territories than shutting off their water.
even the World Bank started to admit that wealth was becoming concentrated among the very rich around the world, which means that the rich are having trouble finding new places to invest their money. The poor are simply too poor to buy more things, including water...The chief executive of Saur once said, "The scale of the need far outreaches the financial and risk taking capacities of the private sector.
July 24, 2014
I’m lucky. I live in the “civilised” part of the world where I can go to the tap and get as much water as I need. What happens if there’s a burst water main and the supply has to be cut off? We panic! Drought or even the threat of a drought has us up in arms and stocking up on buckets, and peering over neighbours’ fences to see who’s watering their garden during a Water Ban. We take it so much for granted. Imagine, if you will, that you live in a part of the world where water is so scarce that you have to walk miles to a well and carry back one container which has to last for a full day.
This book is very well researched – although I now live in the UK, I had forgotten that Margaret Thatcher privatised Thames Water way back in 1989, then sold off all the infrastructure. Since then, the company has been bought and sold and merged and sold again until it is unrecognisable. Did you know that it provides water not only to England, but Indonesia, China, Turkey, Thailand, and Australia! Karen Piper travels to far flung places to discover for herself what happens when greedy corporations buy the water supply and turn off the taps for those who are cannot pay. She tells us about Tulare Lake in California where the lake has been “reclaimed”; it hasn’t. It has been drained and the resulting dust bowl spews forth deadly dust storms. You will learn about Water Banks – prevalent in the USA in the west, and the 100% privatisation of water in Chile and the effect it has had on the poorest residents.
It is hard to believe that something we get free from nature should become the subject of so much manipulation and corruption. This is one of the few commodities about which it can be said it is not a privilege but a right and should never, ever, have become owned by greedy men who drink more champagne than water. This is scary stuff; a book full of alarming stories – we should be afraid for our future.
Thank you to Net Galley who provided a free download for me to read and review. My review is completely impartial.
This book is very well researched – although I now live in the UK, I had forgotten that Margaret Thatcher privatised Thames Water way back in 1989, then sold off all the infrastructure. Since then, the company has been bought and sold and merged and sold again until it is unrecognisable. Did you know that it provides water not only to England, but Indonesia, China, Turkey, Thailand, and Australia! Karen Piper travels to far flung places to discover for herself what happens when greedy corporations buy the water supply and turn off the taps for those who are cannot pay. She tells us about Tulare Lake in California where the lake has been “reclaimed”; it hasn’t. It has been drained and the resulting dust bowl spews forth deadly dust storms. You will learn about Water Banks – prevalent in the USA in the west, and the 100% privatisation of water in Chile and the effect it has had on the poorest residents.
It is hard to believe that something we get free from nature should become the subject of so much manipulation and corruption. This is one of the few commodities about which it can be said it is not a privilege but a right and should never, ever, have become owned by greedy men who drink more champagne than water. This is scary stuff; a book full of alarming stories – we should be afraid for our future.
Thank you to Net Galley who provided a free download for me to read and review. My review is completely impartial.
June 13, 2014
The Price of Thirst provides readers with a comprehensive look into the global water crisis. Not only dealing with water shortages and the depletion of aquifers, this book touches on everything from virtual water to inadequate sanitation.
The Price of Thirst is one of those books that when you're done reading you think to yourself, "Yes, I learned a lot from this book". This is one of those books that definitely made me rethink not only the way that I use water, but the way that the world uses water. I feel that I am definitely much more informed of the water world than I was before I read this book.
This book uses extremely current information. It's obvious that Karen Piper spent many years researching this book, yet she manages to keep the information current and does a fantastic job of including recent information in the book. While reading I felt that I was privy to the latest information in current events regarding water and that the information gleaned from this book is extremely relevant in the water crisis of today and the future.
The writing in this book is smooth and polished. Piper does a really good job of laying out the facts in a way that is personal while still scientific. I felt as if I were truly immersed in the issues surrounding water while reading Piper's book. I will definitely be on the lookout for more works written by Piper.
I would highly recommend this book for anyone remotely interested water issues around the world or for anyone who consumes water. This is an important book that brings to life a world changing issue.
I received this book for review purposes via NetGalley.
The Price of Thirst is one of those books that when you're done reading you think to yourself, "Yes, I learned a lot from this book". This is one of those books that definitely made me rethink not only the way that I use water, but the way that the world uses water. I feel that I am definitely much more informed of the water world than I was before I read this book.
This book uses extremely current information. It's obvious that Karen Piper spent many years researching this book, yet she manages to keep the information current and does a fantastic job of including recent information in the book. While reading I felt that I was privy to the latest information in current events regarding water and that the information gleaned from this book is extremely relevant in the water crisis of today and the future.
The writing in this book is smooth and polished. Piper does a really good job of laying out the facts in a way that is personal while still scientific. I felt as if I were truly immersed in the issues surrounding water while reading Piper's book. I will definitely be on the lookout for more works written by Piper.
I would highly recommend this book for anyone remotely interested water issues around the world or for anyone who consumes water. This is an important book that brings to life a world changing issue.
I received this book for review purposes via NetGalley.
December 28, 2016
This is another expose of a David and Goliath struggle between the World Bank and IMF and its corporate beneficiaries, and the emerging global movement to make water a human right. When water is defined as a commodity, profits can be made and people go thirsty, get sick and die. When countries and communities unite to codify water as a necessity for life and is the right of all people, then we have much better health outcomes and less unrest. The author tells stories of real people and communities in every part of the world, and exposes the goals of the World Water Forum dominated by huge for- profit companies. I was especially interested in the story of water in CA and in Iraq though it covers India, Chile, South Africa and Egypt.
She makes a strong case for the coming chaos - (no mention was made of fresh water being poisoned by the millions of gallons by so much fracking). The future does look bleak..
Its the water, stupid! Or its the climate, stupid. It doesn't matter --water and climate refugees will be more than civilized society can handle and the chaos is closer than most people understand..
Well written- I read one chapter at a time and let it sink in.. There are over 50 pages of footnotes.
She makes a strong case for the coming chaos - (no mention was made of fresh water being poisoned by the millions of gallons by so much fracking). The future does look bleak..
Its the water, stupid! Or its the climate, stupid. It doesn't matter --water and climate refugees will be more than civilized society can handle and the chaos is closer than most people understand..
Well written- I read one chapter at a time and let it sink in.. There are over 50 pages of footnotes.
December 18, 2019
Six case studies, laid out in three pairs, about how capitalist greed is threatening access to water. The first two are about efforts to privatize water (in California and Chile). The second two are set in post-colonial settings (South Africa and India). The last two are about "water wars in the Middle East," Egypt and Iraq. The cases are a bit uneven, and some chapters are much longer than others. The chapter on Egypt, for example, is much shorter than the one on Iraq, and the connection between those two chapters is not really entirely clear (other than the fact that they are both in the Middle East).
June 19, 2017
An eye-opening book on what we have done to ourselves in a quest for profit and convenience. This book features 1-2 countries in each region of the world to show what has been done in recent history in the name of privatizing, controlling, and/or redistributing water. It's a wrenching account of what we've ended up destroying and untold lives that have been negatively impacted as a result. One big difference between this book and others in the same field is its focus on the role that government and quasi-governmental entities have played, as opposed to corporations. It's an important read.
January 27, 2018
I enjoyed learning about the political intricacies that drive the provision and use of water. But something that I felt was sorely missing from the book is a recognition of population growth and the effects this has on water use. More people = more problems, yet this wasn’t mentioned and all the water problems were blamed solely on the private companies - I thought there was a need for greater balance in the writing.
January 10, 2021
This was a really interesting, well-researched book that was unfortunately drowned out by snarky language and black and white bias. It lacked nuance when discussing a complex topic. While I don't necessarily disagree with her critiques of neoliberalism and the World Bank, the excessive use of air quotes got exhausting. She also wrote "Solve climate change" as one of her solutions to these global water crises, as if it were just that simple.
October 17, 2017
It is clear that Piper was painstaking and took great care in the research that went into this book. She brings the reader around the world exposing the disturbing reality we currently face with water. Popular narratives in the mainstream US media about the Iraq War are turned on their heads. The book is an excellent read, and truly commendable.
September 9, 2019
Very well written testimony about water and how it has been commodified and abused by those in power. Piper writes from a very personal perspective - talking to those who have been involved with water rights all over the world and giving background to such an important issue.
September 17, 2019
"The U.S. representative claimed there was not 'sufficient legal basis for declaring or recognizing water or sanitation as freestanding human rights.'" Of course they did.
December 6, 2018
So, I really wanted this book to give me the facts: how is the global water supply in crisis, and how might we fix it? Maybe the book eventually gets there, but I wouldn't know because I couldn't force myself past the introductory chapter. The author has such a strong personal opinion against anything associated with corporations and capitalism that she is quick to write off potential approaches to the clean water problem (such as World Bank development funding) with no explanation, when really I would have enjoyed a more balanced account with pros and cons. That and her very shaky grasp of basic economic principles (which left me rolling my eyes every few sentences) quickly made me realize that this book was not worth my time.
July 7, 2022
I found this book disappointing in detail and depth. I had high expectations for a more serious and scholarly work, but sadly I am still in search of such a work. After recently re-watching the documentary Blue Gold: World Water Wars, my interest was kindled. However, this is not the book to answer those questions, it is more of a polemic. That is fine, but that is not really how the book appears to be marketed and certainly not my expectation. Many assertions were not footnoted and then when I went to look at some of the source material, it was lacking for the assertions made.
January 9, 2025
More worthless cr*p from an author who absolutely fits the stereotype of "PHD with no real talent or knowledge that has to do with or effects any "real world" issues. Just words vomited onto paper. Mix of propaganda, ideological baseless theses, simply written by an author who loves to hear herself speak. Don't waste a dime or a minute of your life on this.
February 20, 2020
Very descriptive on how various cultures are responding to the global water inequality . Critique is that it does not provide a form of solution and does not take into account the cost associated with making water potable in countries where governments struggle for funding.
April 24, 2021
Is water a “human right” or an “economic good?” This question pits developed nations versus developing nations, as well as Europe and the US against other places.
A depressing and alarming read. Again, a theme of very few profiting on the misery of millions.
A depressing and alarming read. Again, a theme of very few profiting on the misery of millions.
June 10, 2017
I learned a lot from this book. It made me aware of much of the politics surrounding water, as well as privatization in general. I also learned about ancient water harvesting techniques that have been in use in older cultures for centuries before Western or colonial methods were pushed on people, usually against their wishes. Above all, the author really hates the World Bank and the IMF, and she makes a compelling case for any average citizen to do the same.
May 4, 2020
Learnt a lot from this and it surely made me realize how little most of us know about the subject even if our lives depend on it.
September 29, 2021
3.5 stars.
June 13, 2022
A must read for everyone
June 13, 2024
Well researched account of the business and corruption involved in control of water and the effects on population health and disparities.
January 9, 2025
Felt like it was written by a child.
March 6, 2015
This is an extremely unsettling book - but quite prophetic as recent headlines and newspaper articles have shown.
Starting with the premise that water is a non-capital item (essentially cost neutral) she details the transition from that point to a commodity that is owned and traded by both business and governments.
Even when governments 'control' the flow of water to the populace the real control is shown to be businesses whose main goal is to insure shareholder returns. As an example, several years ago Duke Power drew down the resevoir system to reduce the threat of flooding. The nest summer Duke Power cried for people to reduce water usage due to low levels in the resevoirs, then had the government increase the rates so the company could make adequate returns on investments. And Duke is a power company not a water company.
With the draw-down of the western aquifers and lets not forget Florida (sink-holes anyone?) - the attendant droughts and land destruction will not do anything but increase.
This was not an easy read but definitely one that is worth the effort. It was well researched and documented (I checked some of the supporting literature). What will it take for the people in charge realize that they do not report to corporations or wealthy donors but to the people?
Starting with the premise that water is a non-capital item (essentially cost neutral) she details the transition from that point to a commodity that is owned and traded by both business and governments.
Even when governments 'control' the flow of water to the populace the real control is shown to be businesses whose main goal is to insure shareholder returns. As an example, several years ago Duke Power drew down the resevoir system to reduce the threat of flooding. The nest summer Duke Power cried for people to reduce water usage due to low levels in the resevoirs, then had the government increase the rates so the company could make adequate returns on investments. And Duke is a power company not a water company.
With the draw-down of the western aquifers and lets not forget Florida (sink-holes anyone?) - the attendant droughts and land destruction will not do anything but increase.
This was not an easy read but definitely one that is worth the effort. It was well researched and documented (I checked some of the supporting literature). What will it take for the people in charge realize that they do not report to corporations or wealthy donors but to the people?
August 14, 2014
“Water, water every where, Nor any drop to drink.” - a famous poetic line could become a global chant if water inequality continues, as explained in Karen Piper’s “The Price of Thirst”. Piper (postcolonial studies/geography, Univ. of Missouri; Cartographic Fictions and Left in the Dust) presents an alarming tale of the state of water on a global scale. Piper travels six continents and a dozen countries to investigate what happens to vast populations when water is treated as a commodity, not a human right. Places such as Chile, New Delhi and South Africa have become battlegrounds for water rights after privatization leaves the poor with dry taps and/or flooded villages. Piper explores how historical colonization has encouraged water to be treated as an economic good on indigenous lands. She studies World Bank, International Monetary Fund and G-20 policies in relation to water inequality for a fifth of the world’s population. Piper’s solutions are many, but revolve around giving power back to the people, not the corporations.
January 27, 2015
There are parts of California, right now, where no water is available from safe, public sources. People are purchasing bottled water to drink and filling tanks—at a price—for hygiene use.
In The Price of Thirst, Karen Piper warns that this isn’t the drought-driven anomaly we might think, at least not on a planet-wide scale. Not only are we facing diminishing reserves of clean, fresh water, those that we do have are being claimed by private corporations who have every intent to charge us for what we once dipped from our own wells—and they’re being aided in this by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Her main focus is on the increasing privatization of water supplies ...
(Full review on Lit/Rant: http://litrant.tumblr.com/post/103460...)
In The Price of Thirst, Karen Piper warns that this isn’t the drought-driven anomaly we might think, at least not on a planet-wide scale. Not only are we facing diminishing reserves of clean, fresh water, those that we do have are being claimed by private corporations who have every intent to charge us for what we once dipped from our own wells—and they’re being aided in this by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Her main focus is on the increasing privatization of water supplies ...
(Full review on Lit/Rant: http://litrant.tumblr.com/post/103460...)
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