The UN designated the decade 2005–2015 as the International Decade for Action – Water for Life. The move was initiated at the third World Water Forum in Kyoto, 2003, and it could prove the most significant and effective outcome of the triennial series of World Water For a yet. Its major aims are: (1) to promote efforts to fulfil recent international commitments, especially in the Millennium Goals, (2) to advance towards a truly integrated, int- national approach to sustainable water management, and (3) to put special emphasis on the role of women in these efforts. Even so, it faces tremendous and, as I write, increasing obstacles. The intense season of hurricanes and tropical storms in 2008 illustrated yet again not only the power of nature, but also the vulnerability of the poorer nations, like Haiti and Jamaica. New Orleans and Texas fared better, not because of the efforts of the International Decade for Natural Disasters (1990–2000) to increase preparedness, but more because the USA had learnt from its own experiences in Hurricane Katrina. The biggest obstacle of all is the burgeoning world population. It took off last century, but it is predicted to reach unimaginable heights this century: at least 10 billion by 2050, maybe 20 billion by 2100. Governments are powerless to halt it, even the Chinese. Achieving water security globally against this backdrop will be a Herculean task.

Cross-border Water Trade: Legal and Interdisciplinary Perspectives is a critical assessment of one of the growing problems faced by the international community — the global water deficit. Cross-border water trade is a solution that generates ethical and economic but also legal challenges. Economic, humanitarian and environmental approaches each highlight different and sometimes conflicting aspects of the international commercialization of water. Finding an equilibrium for all the dimensions required an interdisciplinary path incorporating certain perspectives of natural law. The significance of such theoretical underpinnings is not merely academic but also quite practical, with concrete consequences for the legal status of water and its fitness for international trade.

International Trade in Water Rights provides a new approach to the questions raised by international water transfer projects: To whom does water belong? More precisely, what rules should govern international water transfers from transboundary watercourses? These issues are usually studied through the lenses of international trade law. International Trade in Water Rights offers a new approach by highlighting the fundamental issue of domestic and international water property regime and introducing the difference between trade in water and trade in water rights. International Trade in Water Rights analyses the conditions under which market-based instruments could participate in the resolution of water disputes over international watercourses and recommendations are made based on the study of two cases of inter-state water trading in the Colorado River Basin and in the Murray Darling Basin. It is argued that the recognition of water as an economic good in domestic water reform will increasingly impact the management of international watercourses. The book is of key interest to water professionals, economists, lawyers, and political scientists dealing with transboundary disputes over water.

Acclaimed author and award-winning scientist and activist Vandana Shiva lucidly details the severity of the global water shortage, calling the water crisis “the most pervasive, most severe, and most invisible dimension of the ecological devastation of the earth.” She sheds light on the activists who are fighting corporate maneuvers to convert the life-sustaining resource of water into more gold for the elites and uses her knowledge of science and society to outline the emergence of corporate culture and the historical erosion of communal water rights. Using the international water trade and industrial activities such as damming, mining, and aquafarming as her lens, Shiva exposes the destruction of the earth and the disenfranchisement of the world's poor as they are stripped of rights to a precious common good. Revealing how many of the most important conflicts of our time, most often camouflaged as ethnic wars or religious wars, are in fact conflicts over scarce but vital natural resources, she calls for a movement to preserve water access for all and offers a blueprint for global resistance based on examples of successful campaigns. Featuring a new introduction by the author, this edition of Water Wars celebrates the spiritual and traditional role water has played in communities throughout history and warns that water privatization threatens cultures and livelihoods worldwide.

Exploring water scarcity issues in light of the growing crisis in global water management, this book examines the applicability of water markets. It provides an overview and understanding of the presence of water markets across the globe, analysing the ways in which different countries and regions are grappling with water scarcity.

Globalization of Water is a first-of-its-kind review of the critical relationship between globalization and sustainable water management. It explores the impact of international trade on local water depletion and pollution and identifies “water dependent” nations. Examines the critical link between water management and international trade, considering how local water depletion and pollution are often closely tied to the structure of the global economy Offers a consumer-based indicator of each nation’s water use: the water footprint Questions whether trade can enhance global water use efficiency, or whether it simply shifts the environmental burden to a distant location Highlights the hidden link between national consumption and the use of water resources across the globe, identifying the threats facing ‘water dependent’ countries worldwide Provides a state-of-the-art review and in-depth data source for a new field of knowledge

This publication addresses the global challenges of food and water security in a rapidly changing and complex world. The essays highlight the links between bio-physical and socio-cultural processes, making connections between local and global scales, and focusing on the everyday practices of eating and drinking, essential for human survival. Written by international experts, each contribution is research-based but accessible to the general public.