Review of THIRST – The Global Quest to solve the Water Crisis

Written for the Landworker magazine.  Yet to be published. 

THIRST – The Global Quest to solve the Water Crisis

Filippo Menga

Menga reveals there is no global water crisis. Instead, it’s a matter of distribution and ownership, now increasingly in private investors hands such that in late 2020 it became possible to trade water on Wall Street through the futures market. In Robert Tressell’s classic novel ‘The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists’ air is sold. It may yet happen.

Britain is the only European nation whose water supply is completely controlled by private companies. Investment has plummeted. Yet, half the water used for our food production is employed overseas, leading to shortages there and a loss of nature.

Being kind hearted characters these profit guzzling water companies have established charities to help the half of the world that lacks basic sanitation, resulting in one child dying every 15 seconds.

Well-meaning celebrities persuade followers to donate. But they remain silent about a capitalist system where 2,500 billionaires own so much wealth. Thus, they ignore that access to safe water, denied to two billion people, increases with income.

The book proposes solutions so that the abundant water we possess is better used including turning bottled water companies into public utilities.

Better still to restore the public sector and for water to be managed by democratically elected governments.