"The shortage of fresh, clean water,” states a report by the Human Rights Commission, "is the greatest danger to which mankind has ever been exposed.” It is only thanks to water and its mysterious qualities that life on earth is possible at all. Without water there would be no food, no clothing, there would not even be the ink the Bill of Rights was written with. Who owns the Water? discusses the phenomenon of water, marvels at its uniqueness and addresses the dangers and opportunities water offers to life. The book looks at the most important questions about providing drinking water and producing food, but also deals with water as a destructive force, and investigates the chemical qualities of the molecule. Who owns the Water? points out the risks of unlimited privatization of water, and records how dependence on water is exploited. Committed picture sequences and detailed texts explain how water can belong to no one, but has to be treated responsibly and held in appropriate esteem by the whole of mankind.

Out of sight of most Americans, global corporations likeNestlé, Suez, and Veolia are rapidly buying up our local watersources—lakes, streams, and springs—and taking controlof public water services. In their drive to privatize and commodifywater, they have manipulated and bought politicians, clinchedbackroom deals, and subverted the democratic process by trying todeny citizens a voice in fundamental decisions about their mostessential public resource. The authors' PBS documentary Thirst showed howcommunities around the world are resisting the privatization andcommodification of water. Thirst, the book,picks up where the documentary left off, revealing the emergence ofcontroversial new water wars in the United States and showing howcommunities here are fighting this battle, often against companiesheadquartered overseas. Read areview...http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/18/RVGS9OHPKT1.DTL