The Last Drop

Description

Indispensable for human existence yet increasingly owned and controlled by private capital; the last decade has witnessed an intensifying battle for water. The exploding profits of the multinational companies which dominate the water industry are testimony to how high the stakes are – by 2012 it had become a worth a trillion dollars. The Last Drop traces a path through the complex arguments that surround the question of water, setting out to make the technical and scientific arguments more accessible and the political questions more urgent.

Against the market fundamentalists, Mike Gonzalez and Marianella Yanes argue that it is both possible and necessary that considerations of equity and social justice prevail in the debates around water. They call for our water supply to be saved from subordination to the whims of the multinationals and placed under direct democratic public control. This book will be a vital resource for water activists and a wake-up call to everyone who takes for granted what comes out of their kitchen tap.

Mike Gonzalez is Emeritus Professor of Latin American Studies at the University of Glasgow. He is the co-editor of Arms and the People (Pluto, 2012) and author of Hugo Chavez: Socialist for the Twenty-first Century (Pluto, 2014)

Marianella Yanes is a Venezuelan journalist and writer for television and film. Until January 2009 she worked for the Venezuelan State Oil Corporation (PDVSA) as a journalist and documentary maker.