Poisoned Spring: The EU & Water Privatisation
by Kartika Liotard and Steven P McGiffen
Pluto Press, £17.99
I once interviewed an Iraqi scientist, now working at Surrey University, who specialises in designing new systems for making fresh water. He told me he was inspired to go into this area because when he was growing up his father’s farm was forced to close and they all moved to the city. The river which supplied the farm’s water was reduced to a trickle because of a dam built upstream in a neighbouring country. It’s a story that has been repeated endlessly throughout history and, with climate change, it is likely to become even more common.
The authors of this book have taken on a big topic and done an excellent job in taking apart the myths and showing the reality of global water provision. Indeed, the title is somewhat misleading because this book has a much wider scope than it suggests.
Good scientists define their terms and Liotard and McGiffen set out exactly what they mean by water shortages, differing approaches to flood prevention and other issues. They are quite clear about their ideological approach as this section on the New Orleans flood makes plain: “When neo-liberalism is dead and buried and we are dancing on its grave, the New Orleans flood will serve to remind us that it was a philosophy whose fundamental tenet is that the poor, when not being exploited for gain, should be left to their fate.”
Liotard is an MEP representing the Socialist Party of the Netherlands while McGiffen is Assistant Professor of International Relations at the American Graduate School for International Relations and Diplomacy in Paris. He was previously an environmental adviser to the United European Left group of MEPs.
They offer a rigorous analysis of the current state of water provision inside and outside the EU. They clinically dissect public policies which have left too many people without safe and regular water supplies. They also put the situation in an environmental context looking at the many destructive and short-term solutions used to combat problems such as flooding.
They finish with recommendations for more sustainable solutions because, as they say, “water is far too important to be left to profit-making corporations”. It is a fundamental human right which needs protecting and there are solutions, which don’t rely on private capital, which are being discussed at a European level by politicians and scientists. This is an angry book but, with its options for the future, also a hopeful one.
Phil Chamberlain
