Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water

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The New Press, May 1, 2009 - Nature - 210 pages
A cautionary account of climate change and the global water supply. “You will not turn on the tap in the same way after reading this book.” —Robert Redford
 
In a book hailed by Publishers Weekly as a “passionate plea for access-to-water activism,” Blue Covenant addresses an environmental crisis that—together with global warming—poses one of the gravest threats to our survival.
 
How did the world’s most vital resource become imperiled? And what must we do to pull back from the brink? In “stark and nearly devastating prose”, world-renowned activist and bestselling author Maude Barlow—who is featured in the acclaimed documentary Flow—discusses the state of the world’s water. Barlow examines how water companies are reaping vast profits from declining supplies, and how ordinary people from around the world have banded together to reclaim the public’s right to clean water, creating a grassroots global water justice movement. While tracing the history of international battles for the right to water, she documents the life-and-death stakes involved in the fight and lays out the actions that we as global citizens must take to secure a water-just world for all (Booklist).
 
“Sounds the water alarm with conviction and authority.” —Kirkus Reviews
 
“This book proves that water deserves another destiny.” —Eduardo Galeano
 
Blue Covenant will inspire civil society movements around the world.” —Vandana Shiva
 

Contents

Chapter 1
1
Chapter 2
34
Chapter 3
68
Chapter 4
102
Chapter 5
142
Sources and Further Reading
177
Index
185
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About the author (2009)

A recipient of Sweden's Right Livelihood Award (the "Alternative Nobel") and a Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship, Maude Barlow is head of the Council of Canadians, Canada's largest public advocacy organization, and founder of the Blue Planet Project. She is the author of sixteen books, including Blue Gold (The New Press)—published in over fifty countries—and is on the board of Food and Water Watch and the International Forum on Globalization. She lives in Ottawa, Canada.

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