Ecological
feminism
|
Water
Wars
Privatization, Pollution, and Profit
By Vandana Shiva
158
pages, 2002 ISBN 0-89608-650-X paper
$14.00
ISBN 0-89608-651-8 cloth $40.00 |
In Water Wars,
Vandana Shiva uses her remarkable knowledge of science and society
to analyze the historical erosion of communal water rights. Examining
the international water trade, damming, mining, and aquafarming, Shiva
exposes the destruction of the earth and the disenfranchisement of the
world's poor as they are stripped of their rights to a precious common
good.
In Water Wars, Shiva reveals how many of the most important conflicts
of our time, most often camouflaged as ethnic wars or religious wars,
such as the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, are in fact conflicts
over scarce but vital natural resources.
Shiva celebrates the spiritual and traditional role water has played
in communities throughout history, and warns that water privatization
threatens cultures and livelihoods worldwide. She calls for a movement
to preserve water access for all, and offers a blueprint for global
resistance based on examples of successful campaigns like the one in
Cochabamba, Bolivia, where citizens fought for and retained their water
rights.
"Shiva contributes
to the heated debate on the global water crisis.… Shiva argues forcefully
that the main causes of water scarcity are not population growth and
natural disasters, but greed and wasteful consumption." —Lori Pottinger,
World Rivers Review
"Colorful and enlightening.… An excellent starting point for anyone
who wants to understand the forces driving water scarcity today
and threatening its future supply." —Kerryn Higgs, Women's Review
of Books
"A chilling, in-depth examination of the rapidly emerging global crisis."
—Kristie Reilly, In These Times
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