| Here
in the pluvial climes of the Northwest, we take water
for granted. Seattleites obtain their water by way of
Seattle Public Utilities, a publicly-owned and managed
company committed to conservation, health, and safety.
However, water is rapidly becoming a big business and
global corporations and their subsidiaries are making
gargantuan efforts to turn the world’s supply of
fresh water into a profitable commodity. The maximization
of profit will trump health and environmental concerns.
In this unprecedented era of climate change, we ignore
infringement on this fundamental resource at our collective
peril.
In their crisp, readable book, Thirst, the
authors provide a superb overview of how this corporate
campaign—featuring giants like Nestle, Veolia,
Suez Lyonnaise, and RWE—is currently being played
out in various cities and towns throughout America.
“Water is fast becoming a commodity to be bought
and sold, rather than a medium through which a community
maintains its identity and asserts its values. But for
most people in the United States water is still just
water—not the stuff of profit or politics. We
don’t give it a second thought until the tap runs
dry or brown or we flush and it doesn’t go away.”
It may surprise you to learn that the Urban Water Council,
which is affiliated with the U.S. Conference of Mayors,
is funded and supported by private businesses, thus making
the Conference “an engine of water privatization.”
Many cash-strapped municipalities can become easy targets
as savvy businessmen dangle promises of savings and efficiency
before government officials unnerved by the cost of mandated
upgrades and maintenance. Once the door is open to such
business enterprise, unforeseen problems frequently and
sometimes rapidly emerge: Water service and safety become
secondary to the primary corporate requirement of making
a buck.
However, this book is also replete with stories of the
heroic efforts made by common citizens in Stockton, Cal;
Lexington, Kent.; Holyoke, Mass.; and elsewhere in this
country, who have stood up to corporate arrogance and
fought to keep their community’s water in public
hands. In some cases, after grueling and frustrating battles
against considerable odds, they have won.
Thirst details the power and influence of
organized businesses and their relentless and ruthless
pursuit of profits. This admirable book also demonstrates
the considerable power inherent in ordinary citizens
who come together, educate and organize themselves,
and build community and democracy in the face of forces
whose defining principle is monetary gain.
In conclusion, the authors state: “Whether clean
and safe water will remain accessible to all, affordable
and sustainable into the future, depends on all of us.
The stakes could not be higher. The outcome will surely
be a measure of our democracy in the 21st century.”
The stories they relate and the exigent message that
is repeatedly sounded in each instance of grassroots
rebellion make Thirst a book worthy of wide
readership.
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