International tensions around water are rising in many of the world's most volatile regions. The policy recipe pursued by the West, and imposed on governments elsewhere, is to pass control over water to private interests, which simply accelerates the cycle of inequality and deprivation. California, as well as China, South Africa, Mexico and countries on every continent already face a crisis. This book exposes the enormity of the problem, the dangers of the proposed solution and the alternative, which is to recognize access to water as a fundamental human right, not dependent on ability to pay.

Acknowledgements * Introduction * Treaty Initiative * I The Crises: Red Alert * Endangered Planet * Dying of Thirst * II The Politics: Everything for Sale * Global Water Lords * Emergent Water Cartel * Global Nexus * III The Way Forward: Fightback * The Standpoint * The Way Forward * Notes * Index

Maude Barlow is the national chairperson of the Council of Canadians, and the bestselling author of twelve other books. She is a director of the International Forum on Globalization and co-founder of the Blue Planet Project, a global citizens' movement to protect water.
Tony Clarke is the director of the Polaris Institute on corporations for the International Forum of Globalization. He is also the author of 'Silent Coup: Confronting the Big Business Takeover of Canada'. Together, Barlow and Clarke have co-authored three books on the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, and were the Canadian leaders in the successful struggle to scuttle that deal.