The Last Drop: The Politics of Water - Softcover

Gonzalez, Mike; Yanes, Marianella

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0745334911 ISBN 13: 9780745334912

Publisher: Pluto Press, 2015

Synopsis

The one indispensable resource, water is increasingly controlled and even owned by private capital. By 2012, water was a trillion-dollar industry—and as population growth, industrial production, and ecological change make scarcity ever-more common, water may well become the source of military and political conflict in the years to come.
 
This book looks at how we got here and what we can and should do next. Laying out the complex arguments surrounding water, its ownership and access to it, Mike Gonzalez and Marianella Yanes make the technical and scientific aspects of the discussion clear and accessible—and thereby enable themselves to make the political questions more urgent. Pushing back against the market fundamentalists, the authors argue that it is both possible and necessary that considerations of equity and social justice prevail in the debates about water. Powerful and polemical, The Last Drop will be a vital resource for water activists worldwide.

About this title

About the Author:

Mike Gonzalez is emeritus professor of Latin American studies at the University of Glasgow. Marianella Yanes is a Venezuelan journalist and writer for television and film.
 

Review:

“Seminal.” (LSE Review of Books)

“Water is a resource that belongs to all of us, and in this perceptive yet accessible book Mike Gonzalez takes issue with the way global capitalism has redefined water as a commodity, and depicts the bitter harvest that has resulted from water privatization.” (Richard Boyd Barrett, member of Irish Parliament)

“Gonzalez and Yanes have produced a definitive analysis of the current world water challenge. This book details how the 'modern' world has created a shortage unprecedented in human history while separating the popular theme of domestic consumption from the true water consumers: the corporations. To understand the ‘crisis of governance’ that has changed water as a human right to a profitable commodity for financial interests, you must read The Last Drop.” (Marcela Olivera, coordinator, Red VIDA)

“In this sobering account of hydro-politics, Gonzalez and Yanes remind us that human greed—not environmental inadequacy—lies at the heart of the global water 'crisis.' The authors call for a ‘New International Water Order,’ born out of the needs and realties of ordinary people. This book is a must-read for all those wishing to end corporate control of everyday life.” (Marcelle Dawson, University of Otago, New Zealand)

“Books like this are rare. Eloquent, poetic, enraged, committed, Marxist, environmentalist, written from the Global South, a book full of the fire and feeling of the Latin American social movements. The authors are activists, so they love the earth, hate capitalist inequality, and write in hope.” (Jonathan Neale, author of Stop Global Warming, Change the World)

“Gonzales and Yanes explain how the current water crisis results directly from neoliberal capitalism’s insistence on privatization, deregulation, and free trade. . . . The authors argue for a social-justice approach to water distribution based on common consent that access to water is a fundamental human right. They urge societies to make water available to all citizens and to pay for it through equitable and redistributive tax systems.” (Times Literary Supplement)

About this edition

• Publisher: Pluto Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0745334911
• ISBN 13: 9780745334912
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224