Synopsis:
Population
growth, pollution, and scarcity are turning water into "blue gold," the
oil of the 21st century. Global corporations are rushing to gain control
of this dwindling natural resource, producing intense conflict in the US
and worldwide where people are dying in battles over control of water.
As
revealed in "Thirst," the world is poised on the brink of epochal changes
in how water is stored, used, and valued. Will these changes provide clean
water to the billions of people who need it? Or save the child who dies
every eight seconds from contaminated water? Examining water conflicts
on three continents, "Thirst" shows that popular opposition to the privatization
of water sparks remarkable coalitions that cross partisan lines. When it
comes to water, many people demand local control and fear the arrival of
multinational corporations with large lobbying budgets and little local
loyalty.
In
many ways, the Bolivian city of Cochabamba, India's Rajasthan state, and
Stockton, California, occupy very different rungs of the global economic
ladder. But in one respect at least, these communities are strikingly similar.
They each found themselves threatened with losing public control of their
water resources to multinational corporations. And they each fought long
odds in resisting the juggernaut of globalization, which is driving the
worldwide privatization of public resources, utilities, and services. |
