Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource
by Marq de Villiers
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Book Summary Information
Author: Marq de VilliersEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-07-12
ISBN: 0618127445
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Mariner Books
Book Reviews of Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource
Book Review: Water for the masses
Summary: 4 Stars
Marq de Villiers' Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource combines both well researched information and personal experiences to produce a book that delves into an issue that is hard to face, on both a region specific level and on a global scale - the increasingly limited amount of water resources we are able to use. de Villiers is a journalist that has worked as an editor and foreign correspondent. He now primarily writes books on scientific topics.
Water is a revealing book that gives the reader a general yet comprehensive understanding of where the overpopulated and industrialized world we live in gets its water. de Villiers also gives a general status report in terms of what water resources we currently have and what condition those resources are in (is the water even usable?). Though, as de Villiers states, "Water supplies in the Nile Valley itself - the cradle of civilization - are in peril" (2, p.14). Water calls for a sense of urgency in addressing the ever-looming problem of increasingly limited resources, namely water.
One prevalent point that de Villiers repeatedly articulates is that the amount of water resources on the planet is not decreasing; rather, the global increase in population stresses already stressed water-scarce regions and threatens those regions where water scarcity is just on the horizon. He asserts that "population is the principal culprit. The mass exodus of refugees to Gaza after partition in 1948 more than tripled its population, which is now grown to almost to a million people...Gaza has one of the highest growth rates in the world...as a result, per capita water availability has decreased dramatically" (2, p.202).
Water is split up into four parts. The first is to inform the reader of all the stats about water and where it is scarce and where it is abundant, now and throughout history. Part two focuses on how the human factor has restructured and contaminated the water of the world (i.e. damming rivers, using up aquifers, human caused climate change, etc). The third part of the book reveals the major political disputes that surround transnational water sources. The fourth part explores a few possible solutions and ways of thinking that have potential to ease the water stressed status that many parts of the world experience.
de Villiers' book reads much like a series of case studies, with the occasional childhood memory thrown in the mix to remind the reader how the use of water has affected de Villiers his entire life. At points, it seems as though you are reading a personal account of de Villiers' travels and conversations with an assortment of people. If you are expecting a semi-scientific read, this will seem out of place and extraneous, but it does give the subject matter of the book (i.e. water crisis) a personal and human quality that makes the book more approachable to those who are not necessarily interested in a scientific read but are still interested in "the fate of our most precious resource." Also, some of de Villiers' sentences are oddly constructed and require re-reading to get the intended flow and meaning correct. I felt that this detracted from the book's ability to keep my undivided attention.
In Water, de Villiers is able to take information from scientific and historical studies and sum it all up in a way that is coherent and understandable to the average reader. For instance, all of the accounts of countries battling over water sources and rights to water throughout history are brought together in parallel comparison. de Villiers offers possible political solutions that are in concert with other literature and scientific papers.
I would recommend Water to anyone looking for an ample account of the history of water usage and management as well as to those looking for the big picture behind the recent fuss about impending water shortages. This book is also a good resource to raise awareness for those that don't know much about the topic, and even a good read for those that are clueless as to why canals are built, etc. However, if you're looking for a book that enumerates solutions on the individual level, you won't find any in Water. de Villiers does get his facts straight though and presents information in a well organized, topic focused, and relevant manner.
Summary of Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource
In his award-winning book WATER, Marq de Villiers provides an eye-opening account of how we are using, misusing, and abusing our planet's most vital resource. Encompassing ecological, historical, and cultural perspectives, de Villiers reports from hot spots as diverse as China, Las Vegas, and the Middle East, where swelling populations and unchecked development have stressed fresh water supplies nearly beyond remedy. Political struggles for control of water rage around the globe, and rampant pollution daily poses dire ecological theats. With one eye on these looming crises and the other on the history of our dependence on our planet's most precious commodity, de Villiers has crafted a powerful narrative about the lifeblood of civilizations that will be "a wake-up call for concerned citizens, environmentalists, policymakers, and water drinkers everywhere" (Publishers Weekly).
Water is a curious thing, observed the economist Adam Smith: although it is vital to life, it costs almost nothing, whereas diamonds, which are useless for survival, cost a fortune. In Water, Canadian journalist de Villiers says the resource is still undervalued, but it is becoming more precious. It's not that the world is running out of water, he adds, but that "it's running out in places where it's needed most."
De Villiers examines the checkered history of humankind's management of water--which, he hastens to remind us, is not a renewable resource in many parts of the world. One of them is the Nile River region, burdened by overpopulation. Another is the Sahara, where Libyan ruler Muammar Qaddafi is pressing an ambitious, and potentially environmentally disastrous, campaign to mine deep underground aquifers to make the desert green. Another is northern China, where the damaging effects of irrigation have destroyed once-mighty rivers, and the Aral Sea of Central Asia, which was killed within a human lifetime. And still another is the American Southwest, where crops more fitting to a jungle than a dry land are nursed. De Villiers travels to all these places, reporting on what he sees and delivering news that is rarely good.
De Villiers has a keen eye for detail and a solid command of the scientific literature on which his argument is based. He's also a fine storyteller, and his wide-ranging book makes a useful companion to Marc Reisner's classic Cadillac Desert and other works that call our attention to a globally abused--and vital--resource. --Gregory McNamee
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