Every Drop for Sale: Our Desperate Battle Over Water in a World About to Run Out [Paperback]

Jeffrey Rothfeder (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 19, 2004

An investigative journalist explores our world on the brink of running out of usable water.

Less than .0008 percent of the total water on Earth is fit for human consumption, but global consumption of fresh water is doubling every twenty years. Water has become perhaps our most precious commodity-a life-sustaining but increasingly rare and privatized resource. A dramatic gap exists between those who have adequate water for survival and those who don't, and tensions over water in some areas of the world hover just below open war.

From Europe to Asia to Africa to America, Jeffrey Rothfeder has visited the world's hot spots, those with the least amount of water, as well as places where there is so much of it that plans are in the works to sell the excess to the highest bidder. In this compelling narrative account of our world in turmoil over water, Rothfeder describes the issues and struggles of the people on all sides of the water crisis: from the scarred survivors of bizarre water-management practices, to those who are willing to die for water to sustain their families and crops, to the scientists and leaders who are trying to set things straight.

Important, provocative, and immensely readable, Every Drop for Sale explores a fascinating critical dilemma: As we run out of it, is water a fundamental right of everybody on Earth or just a product humans need that can be bought and sold like any other commodity?

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeffrey Rothfeder, a consulting editor for Popular Science, is a former Business Week editor and national news editor at Bloomberg News. He is the author of five books, including The People vs. Big Tobacco and Privacy for Sale.

Product Details

• Paperback: 205 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher (August 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158542367X
• ISBN-13: 978-1585423675
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,953,337 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Water crisis turns rock musician into sage, September 25, 2004

By 

Jesse Steven Hargrave (Silver City, NM) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Every Drop for Sale: Our Desperate Battle Over Water in a World About to Run Out (Paperback)

Beginning with "Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water" in 1986, many books have been written detailing various blood-boiling aspects of the gross mismanagement of the world's water resources. Most were written as polemics, and justifiably so.

Here in "Every Drop for Sale", author Jeffrey Rothfeder treats the subject using more temperate language. But, given the facts, the reader's reaction is still likely to be one of outrage. It is testament to the author's skill that he is able to raise the alarm while remaining objective and clear-sighted about both progress and possible solutions.

The book ranges widely over the effects of the proliferation of dams, diversions, reservoirs, irrigation projects, privatizations, and subsidizations. As Rothfeder guides us through Rapid City (Iowa), the Narmada River in India, the ill-fated village of Cochabamba in Bolivia, and many other water mismanagement sites, he proves to be an effective and moving chronicler. The power of his book lies in his ability to combine a big picture view with attention to the lives of the powerless who happen to be downstream from some megalomaniac water project.

Cochabamba proves to be both the most arresting and yet ironically one of the more promising of Rothfeder's accounts. Townspeople were first subjected to the loss of their major industry, tin mining. That loss of local revenue then led to the deterioration of their water distribution system. The Bolivian government tried to rescue the situation by privatizing the town's water management out to Bechtel, which promptly raised water fees. Something approaching civil war resulted. Instead of simply bemoaning the path taken, Rothfeder sees in the eventual outcome (after destruction, arrests, and deaths, the government cancelled its deal with Bechtel) both a salutary object lesson and a hope that, with a newly recognized need for safeguards, privatization can in fact be a critical part of addressing the world's accelerating water crisis.

Giving validity to this optimistic outlook, the author concludes that same chapter with a look at how the Blair government turned the UK's privatization efforts, begun disastrously under Margaret Thatcher, into a successful model for the rest for the world. (He characterizes that program as one "strictly overseeing the free water market, while leaving it sufficiently unrestricted that profit incentives will motivate private corporations".) This juxtaposition of stories is characteristic of the book's effective pivot around both problems and ideas for resolution.

Rothfeder argues that the commoditization of water and its corollary, the privatization of water management, are not only inevitable but also that they can be turned to advantage. This is debatable; but he puts forward a compelling case for his belief that both are so.

The standard author's blurb describes Rothfeder as an author and "consulting editor". In the course of the book, he reveals that he came to his water sensitivity while touring as a rock musician. We're fortunate that his itinerary took him to Rapid City. The book is not lengthy, but feels comprehensive, well-informed, and persuasive. We need works like "Cadillac Desert" to fire our indignation at how we got into this fix, but we need "Every Drop for Sale" to remind us that all is not yet lost.