This book offers a study in contrast. Focusing on the trade and politics of water, the professor-journalist duo of Mike Gonzalez and Marianella Yanes lament the growing insanity of identifying with bottled water as a social drink - consumed by elegant people in elegant bars. It is no surprise therefore that some nine billion bottles of water are sold annually across the world. The massive expansion of the private water industry, including the bottled water industry, is an outcome of commitment of neoliberalism to the privatization of all public services and public goods. Outwardly it may seem to be the only way out to address the issue of access and quality. The reality is that big corporations with turnover exceeding US$ 40 billion annually have contributed literally nothing to the resolution of the water problem. This is not surprising when one learns that 34% of water and sewerage privatizations have failed across the world, with as many as 180 cities having remunicipalized their water operations.
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