Maude Barlow

"Canada's best-known voice of dissent." -- CBC "It's time we listened to the Maude Barlows of the world." -- CNN In this timely book, Barlow counters the prevailing atmosphere of pessimism that surrounds us and offers lessons of hope that she has learned from a lifetime of activism. She has been a linchpin in three major movements in her life: second-wave feminism, the battle against free trade and globalization, and the global fight for water justice. From each of these she draws her lessons of hope, emphasizing that effective activism is not really about the goal, rather it is about building a movement and finding like-minded people to carry the load with you. Barlow knows firsthand how hard fighting for change can be. But she also knows that change does happen and that hope is the essential ingredient.

"Maude Barlow is one of our planet's greatest water defenders" -- Naomi Klein, author of bestselling This Changes Everything and The Shock Doctrine The Blue Communities Project is dedicated to three primary things: that access to clean, drinkable water is a basic human right; that municipal and community water will be held in public hands; and that single-use plastic water bottles will not be available in the public spaces. With its simple, straightforward approach, the movement has been growing around the world for a decade. Today, Paris, Berlin, Bern, and Victoria are just a few of the cities that have made themselves Blue Communities. In Blue Communities, renowned water justice activist Maude Barlow recounts her own education in water issues as she and her fellow grassroots water warriors woke up to the immense pressures facing water in a warming world. Concluding with a step-by-step guide to making your own community blue, Blue Communities is a heartening example of how ordinary people can effect enormous change.

A chilling, in-depth examination of how a handful of powerful corporations are gaining ownership and control of the Earth's dwindling water supply, depriving millions of people around the world access to this most basic of resources and accelerating the onset of a global water crisis. With great passion and clarity Barlow traces the history of these international battles and documents the life and death stakes involved in the fight for the right to water.

International tensions around water are rising in many of the world's most volatile regions. The policy recipe pursued by the West, and imposed on governments elsewhere, is to pass control over water to private interests, which simply accelerates the cycle of inequality and deprivation. California, as well as China, South Africa, Mexico and countries on every continent already face a crisis. This book exposes the enormity of the problem, the dangers of the proposed solution and the alternative, which is to recognize access to water as a fundamental human right, not dependent on ability to pay.

The world is running out of water and governments are privatizing water resources. This account explains the enormity of the problem, the dangers of the proposed "solution", and the alternative, which is to recognize access to water as a fundamental human right, not dependent on ability to pay.