Customer Reviews

Out of Water: From Abundance to Scarcity and How to Solve the World's Water Problems

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

We in the West, myself included, take water for granted - it falls free from the sky and it runs whenever we shower or run the faucet. With the potential for global population heading toward 9 billion by 2050, the authors delineate where the problem "hot" spots are for water, and what measures we can take right now from conservation, to better irrigation, to price-risk management.

Chartres and Varma have written a well-rounded book on the incongruence of water prices and its scarcity. Litre for litre, water is more expensive than gasoline.

Everyone and every industry is at risk of a scarcity of water. Whether you are Continental Grain trying to provide food to the world or an alternative energy firm trying to help ween us off hydrocarbons, you will find this book very pithy and full of resources. It's also insightful for CFAs, analysts, private equity, and venture capital professionals who are considering allocating funds and expertise to the water market.

Environmentalists will enjoy the thorough approach that the authors have taken in describing the effects of water on the environment, and the environment on water.

"All the water that will ever be, is right now." National Geographic, October 1993

There is a podcast with one of the authors, Colin Chartres, at [...]

The subject matter is of the utmost importance, and the book conveys some good information even for those who already know something about the world's water problems. Unfortunately, the presentation leaves much to be desired.
The writing style is stiff and repetitive. The reader begins to feel that each chapter makes the same points, just stated in a slightly different way (e.g., water scarcity is driven by population growth, the shift toward meat-intensive diets, competition between water users, slow adoption of efficiency measures, and climate change effects).
The graphics are not helpful. The black-and-white photos, most of them taken by author Chartres, are not well composed and don't do a good job of illustrating the points that the authors are trying to make. The charts and maps generally are too small (in a couple of places, multiple world maps on a single page!) and their color-coded information is hard to discern because they're in black-and-white.
The target audience isn't clear. At some points, I thought the book was directed at readers who are new to water scarcity issues, but other passages seemed more appropriate for academics and others already well versed in the issues. In any case, as other reviewers have suggested, the last chapter probably should have come first, stating a position that the subsequent chapters would seek to support.
Despite conveying some valuable information and insights, I don't see this book as a stimulating introduction for those who are new to the issues. For more informed readers, it offers a very limited solution set. For example, desalination is mentioned a couple of times, but only to remind the reader that it's an expensive option. But what if we were to invest more in improving its affordability and scalability?
For a much more engaging investigation of water issues (though limited to the United States), see Robert Glennon's Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What To Do About It.

Authors Chartres and Varma come from a very strong back ground on the subject of water issues throughout the world.Chartres back ground includes director of International Water Management Institute and 35 years of experience in research. Varma covers women's issues and equity of water worldwide and the effects of poverty and it's relationship with water use and control.The book takes the reader methodically through the Mideast countries to the causes of water scarcity and the effects of population growth.Authors takes a common problem in each chapter from Biofuels, farming and diet around the world and finally concluding with solving water problems. Highly recommended.

The best way to read this book is to skip to the very last chapter, "Solving the World's Water Problems". And if you really can't stand it, skip to the last two pages for the table "Actions Required to Underpin a Blue Revolution". If you have any questions about those actions, find the appropriate section in the last chapter and/or the appropriate chapter in the rest of the book.

I have no issue with the information presented (for the most part), but the way it was presented made this most essential subject as dry as dirt (pun intended). Water is of utmost importance for human life and livelihood even without a developing worldwide environmental disaster; it is a subject we are familiar with in some way. I therefore went into this expecting to like it, and I was disappointed.

This says what all intelligent books on environmental subjects say: we need technology, but we need governance and regulation even more. Further, we need to explore and address the social, economic and historical issues that have contributed to the inequalities of distribution. Good- it's a format I expect, and that should make this easier to read. But this was very difficult to read, in large part because the writing was so stilted and illogical in places. The reader understands what is being communicated, but you need to read it twice in several places.

Another frustration of the book was that they seemed to depend on a handful of cases, particularly the Murray-Darling Basin (a lot), the Southwestern United States, South Africa and India. I would have liked information about more places, but more importantly I would have liked a success story. There was very little of that, although I don't blame the authors- it does seem that those are genuinely difficult to find.

As someone who is very interested in food and food justice, I wasn't surprised at all that agriculture is the biggest consumer of water and that growing meat consumption is exaggerating that. They dropped a tantalizing hint about grass-fed cattle as perhaps playing a role in mitigating the usage of water, but then dropped it. This was a short book- I would have liked to have seen more on that.

They lay out a reasonable if not compelling general course of action that is low on specifics- again, probably not the author's fault. But that all happens in the last chapter, if not two pages- the rest can be seen simply as reference for that.

Out of Water: From Abundance to Scarcity and How to Solve the World's Water Problems"No water, No Life..." is of course, true and the book defines the world's problems, but places a focus on a handful of problems and reads in the manner of the driest of technical textbooks, that is dry (pun unintended, but still fun) and lifeless. When writing college research papers and one textbook, I learned quickly, the old adage, "for every chart and formula, you lose 5%-10% of your readership," unless they are in full color and sexy. (Last, line outside of quotes, my own.) if true this book will have few readers.

Details of percentages and amounts are abundant, and speaking of charts, it is without question, as the book shows, that the USA, Australia, Italy, Japan, Spain Norway, France, Austria, Denmark, and Germany, in that order are the top ten users of water. The above are also among most clean and hygienic nations of the world, most healthy and the least thirsty. In addition, if you have traveled much you know that nations which are mostly agrarian, use more water. Jefferson planned for America to be an agrarian nation; sadly, it is less so today than some of the others in the chart as listed above.

The book seemed a little bit lifeless, it was lacking in exciting/excited language and further motivation for wide readership outside of academia and if that was their goal they succeeded excellently. I thought that a bit more passionate personality in the author's writing style could spruce it up, and without meaning to be sarcastic, the book thus becomes a candidate or a good tonic for those who suffer from Sleep deprivation. It did not stimulate me, despite the massive amount of information and probably because of how it was presented. Out of Water, suffers from the lack of a certain accommodation of stylistic attractivety. It some places is missing a common sense approach. It does, however, offer some practical, as well as some pie-in-the-sky solutions, the latter of which would require the rich and powerful to give up their obvious advantages to the poor and weak and that is unlikely to occur sans an invasion/intervention of the Archangel Michael and his armies.

That much water is wasted is a genuine problem. Several groups other than those cited by Colin Chartres and Samyuktha Varma have tackled the water problems with huge investments and innovation, but there is scarcely a mention of Sea Water Desalinization in Out of Water, so I added some sources for the authors and the public to consider, though it is expensive in use of energy. However, if Geothermal HVAC is combined with Solar Shingles that problem is overcome over a reasonable period of time, especially when taking advantage of grants, subsidies and other perks that often accompany Geothermal/Solar Shingle systems in several states.

"The world's largest desalination plant is the Jebel Ali Desalination Plant (Phase 2) in the United Arab Emirates. It is a dual-purpose facility that uses multi-stage flash distillation and is capable of producing 300 million cubic metres of water per year. By comparison the largest desalination plant in the United States is located in Tampa Bay, Florida and operated by Tampa Bay Water, which began desalinating 25 million gallons (US Gal.) (95000 m³) of water per day in December 2007. The Tampa Bay plant runs at around 12% the output of the Jebel Ali Desalination Plants. A January 17, 2008, article in the Wall Street Journal states, "World-wide, 13,080 desalination plants produce more than 12 billion gallons of water a day, according to the International Desalination Association." - (Wikipedia: [...]

I have written in my columns more than once that looming not far ahead will be huge battles, Water Wars, nor will they be fought with hoses, or guns, though they might, with the rich hiring mercenaries as they did to try to bust the unions with mercenary goons in the 1920's/1930's, but mostly through lock-outs and underground drilling piracy, stealing water right from under the noses of those with deep Artesian Wells.

Many think the problems of outstripping supplies of water, food by a growing population and fewer jobs cannot be solved, but a few think they can and they think it will be very easy. I think it is called Genocide. Allegedly the Bilderbergs, Fascists, New World Order "crazies," as HGW Bush Senior called them, and others are rumored to have a plan in mind much like that of the advocates of population control by assisted attrition, helped along by ignoring natural and man made disasters, and bent on simply through a variety of means killing off 85%-90% of the World's population. Like Adolph Hitler's, plan it is mostly aimed at minorities or aside from themselves the always hated, "others."

What nations will come forth with a workable plan and fund it before Earth resembles its own Moon? Doubtful that America will. We are covered with fascist obstructionism that blocks funding anything that is meant to assist the "working classes," (other than wars of attrition)

There is nary a doubt in my mind that this is America's and the world's greatest challenge. However, other nations, nations which have put business in it's proper place, such as the Scandinavian nations, or commune nations may find it easier to succeed. In our nation, the two parties are now united by hugging the same lack of virtue, the one which Jesus, St. Paul and many of the prophets called avarice/greed, properly translated, as, "The love of dynastic (unspendable), wealth, is the root source (cause) of ALL evil..."

And that fits nicely with the motto of today's, version of Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-21), which appears to be, "There is no tomorrow, so to the Hell with tomorrow, live only for today. Drill baby, Drill today, for I and my friends are all that matter and this lifetime, as far as I am concerned is the last, and let my children/grandchildren, fend for themselves tomorrow..."

It is that selfish avarice with which moralists, conservationists and survivalists have to contend. That makes the growing need for a united effort to create a means of accessing water which is not too expensive, an even more formidable, and probably a losing battle, unless, La voix du bon Dieu, is heard once again across Planet Earth and He deigns to grant us the reincarnation of FDR.

Unless you live in an extremely arid region of the world, chances are you've never given the challenges of water conservation a serious thought. This book challenges you to think about the value of the water we use everyday. Do note that this book is fairly deep and scientific, but it definitely gives you lots of food for thought. Water is one of our most important resources, and if you'd like to learn more about your role in water, conservation, the environment, and more, this is a great way to spend an afternoon.

This is a very important, real issue, that gets very little attention in the day to day. Water is everywhere, yes, but it's not all usable or readily reached. The World does in deed have a water problem on their hands and if you, or someone you know, are unaware of this, pick up this book. I did not give this book 5 stars only because it wasn't a page turner/fascinating read the way the topic was delivered and I did not blow through it as I would normally with a book written on a topic intriguing to me. If the topic of water crisis is an issue you want to learn more about, or to share with someone else, I highly, highly recommend the documentary Flow How did a handful of corporations steal our water Another interesting one, on a similar/related topic, about the bottled water industry is Tapped

This is a good book in that it surveys in some detail, and with examples, current pluralistic thinking about water and its problems. It is mildly repetitive and a bit academic in tone but worth the read for certain. If you are not aware then read this book and become aware! It is a bad book in that it seeks to propose the sorts of pluralistic social and political policies that have failed every time they have been tried in confronting immutable reality back to Suetonius's "Lives of the Caesars". The authors' conclusions are a recipe for more and bigger statism and social revolution. They conclude with an absolute requirement for the increased involvement of women. That is not the way to confront impending disaster. And, though they paint a rosy picture of such activities, the authors barely touch on the many failures of that sort of thing. Are we, I sometimes wonder, taking immigrants from Mexico and points south rather than giving them their entitled outflow from the Colorado and Rio Grande (that trickle at the Gulf)?

I well remember when I was first exposed to environmental modeling and the coming water shortage. It opened my mind and scared me half witless. I didn't sleep well for weeks. Perhaps it was because I had seen my first dead animals in the woods the week before and they haunted my dreams; perhaps because I was in the fourth grade; or perhaps it was because it was the mid 1950's. So I have been worrying and waiting for this book for half a century. This is no joke; no tempest in a teapot!

Later I was trained as an engineer and later as math modeler and I learned that huge problems usually have simple solutions that the bright folks have forbidden. Figure 1.3 (Global Population Trends) shows half the answer. Cut population drastically. The other half is contained in developing technology which the authors discuss not at all. Cheap and "clean" energy (in engineering not gaeian terms), closed systems, fungus based food systems, and desalination [The oceans are HUGE compared to fresh water sources.] could buy us an urbanized future like several science fiction novels. The authors don't go there.

Their approach is to talk about where we are and "viable alternative" ways to work our way forward. All well and good if you are only interested in the next half century or so till we really hit the wall. A previous reviewer mentions the rumors that folks like the Bilderbergers are working on plans for perhaps an 85-90% population drop as an excuse for genocide. Lay that particular brand of racist ugliness at Margaret Sanger's feet where it belongs! The problem with population reduction is that if you don't do it "right" civilization will collapse entirely. If you don't do it at all the ecosystem will do it for you and it will be messy as hell... literally. And I hope somebodies besides me are thinking about it. And for their and your guidance, a world population of less than 250 million is a good target (That's 96%.) if we want to get through the next few hundred millennia.

But again, do become aware before the steamroller of social and political egos rolls over you while you are looking the other way. This is a good place to start.

For a terribly important issue that impacts mans ability to survive on this planet, it is a shame that the book is so repetitive. The information is there but hard to read because of the repetiveness.