Blue Gold: The Battle Against Corporate Theft of the World’s Water

Fresh water is quickly becoming big business, and a preserve of the wealthy.
The world's most fundamental and indispensable resource -- water -- is fast disappearing. In fact, a global shortage of water is looming as the most threatening ecological, economic, and political crisis of the twenty-first century.

And who is making the problem all the more severe? Big business.

In Blue Gold, activists and bestselling authors Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke document the rise of a rapidly proliferating enterprise enabled by recent international trade agreements: the privatization and commodification of water. They show how transnational corporations -- including venture capitalists, heavy industry, bottled water purveyors, and the two soft drink giants - are laying claim to the world's water, packaging it and selling it back to us at increasingly extortionate rates. And their practices are devastating ecosystems and depriving communities around the globe.