Thirst - Hardcover

by Alan Snitow (Author), Deborah Kaufman (Author), Michael Fox (Author)

Out of sight of most Americans, global corporations like Nestl , Suez, and Veolia are rapidly buying up our local water sources--lakes, streams, and springs--and taking control of public water services. In their drive to privatize and commodify water, they have manipulated and bought politicians, clinched backroom deals, and subverted the democratic process by trying to deny citizens a voice in fundamental decisions about their most essential public resource.

The authors' PBS documentary Thirst showed how communities around the world are resisting the privatization and commodification of water. Thirst, the book, picks up where the documentary left off, revealing the emergence of controversial new water wars in the United States and showing how communities here are fighting this battle, often against companies headquartered overseas.

Read a review...http: //www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/18/RVGS9OHPKT1.DTL

Front Jacket

Is water a human right or a commodity to be bought, sold, and traded in the global marketplace? Will it become the oil of the twenty-first century? Is it a source of profit for those in control and a commodity available only to those who can afford to pay?

Out of sight of most Americans, global corporations like Nestlé, Suez, and Veolia are rapidly buying up our local water sources--lakes, streams, and springs--and taking control of public water services. In their drive to privatize and commodify water, they have manipulated and bought politicians, clinched backroom deals, and subverted the democratic process by trying to deny citizens a voice in fundamental decisions about their most essential public resource.

The authors' PBS documentary Thirst showed how communities around the world are resisting the privatization and commodification of water. Thirst, the book, picks up where the documentary left off, revealing the emergence of controversial new water wars in the United States and showing how communities here are fighting this battle, often against companies headquartered overseas.

Both fast paced and sharply observant, Thirst exposes corporate attempts to take over municipally controlled water in communities around the country, to buy up rights to groundwater in the United States, and to create and corner the market on bottled water.

It also shows how people in affected communities are fighting back to keep water affordable, accessible, sustainable, and public by creating new methods to challenge the corporate juggernaut in an age of globalization.

We are at the tipping point in the new global water wars. The United States is ground zero. What happens in the next few years will determine the fate of water and our basic democratic rights here and abroad. Thirst is a battlefield account of the conflict.

Back Jacket

Praise for Thirst

"As a congressman from the Great Lakes region, I appreciate this timely and important work on a critical public policy question: Is water a natural resource to be protected by the public realm, or is it just another commodity?"
--Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Ohio

"A riveting and engaging account of one of the most important environmental issues of our time: Will corporations or citizens control our water?"
--Carl Pope, executive director, Sierra Club

"A smart, gripping narrative of the way 'big money' is cornering the market for life's basic ingredient. It will shock you--and it should!"
--Jeff Faux, founder of the Economic Policy Institute, and author, The Global Class War

"The fight for the right to water has hit the U.S. heartland and this passionate, information-packed book tells the story of ordinary Americans engaged in extraordinary struggles to save their water heritage for future generations. Every American should read it."
--Maude Barlow, chair of Council of Canadians, and author, Blue Gold

"Who really owns your water? It may not be who you think. Read this provocative and insightful book and find out about the politics and economics of growing attempts to privatize our most vital public resource--the stuff that comes out of your tap."
--Peter Gleick, president, Pacific Institute for Development, Environment and Security

"A terrific read--startling and motivating. Thirst helps us see that the fight for the right to water is in fact a struggle for democracy itself. Read Thirst and dive into the twenty-first century's core challenge: Do we save ourselves by the market's logic, or as citizens do we deepen democracy's logic?"
--Frances Moore Lappé, author, Democracy's Edge: Choosing to Save Our Country by Bringing Democracy to Life

Author Biography

Alan Snitow is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist. Kaufman and Snitow's films include Thirst, Secrets of Silicon Valley, and Blacks and Jews.

Deborah Kaufman is a film producer, director, and writer.

Michael Fox is a film critic, journalist, and teacher.