Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
“Seminal.”
Review
“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.”
Review
“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.”
Review
“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.”
Review
“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.”
Synopsis
Indispensable for human existence yet increasingly owned and controlled by private capital; the last decade has witnessed an intensifying battle for water. The Last Drop is a wake-up call to everyone who takes for granted what comes out of their kitchen tap. This book traces a path through the arguments that surround the question of water, setting out to make the scientific arguments more accessible and the political questions more urgent. The exploding profits of the multinational companies which dominate the water industry are testimony to how high the stakes are - by 2012 it had become a worth a trillion dollars. Against the market fundamentalists, the authors argue that it is both possible and necessary that considerations of equity and social justice prevail. They call for our water supply to be saved from subordination to the whims of the multinationals and placed under direct democratic public control.
About the Author
Mike Gonzalez is professor emeritus of Latin American studies at University of Glasgow in Scotland.Marianella Yanes is a Venezuelan writer, journalist, and playwright. She wrote soap operas for a number of Latin American television channels and worked in theater for many years.