The Right to Water: Politics, Governance and Social Struggles

“The Right to Water: Politics, Governance and Social Struggles is a brilliant collection of essays from the best thinkers, academics and activists in the field, and is required reading for all those wanting this mighty effort to succeed.” – Maude Barlow, Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, former Senior Advisor on Water to the 63rd President of the UN General Assembly, and recipient of the 2005 Right Livelihood Award

“The right to water for all has been invoked many times over the past decade or so. Yet, very little has been achieved to achieve a more equitable access to water despite resounding declarations of assorted national and international public and private organizations. This book is a long overdue engagement with the enduring relevance of the right to water and why it is denied to so many people in the world. The contributors consider the centrality of social and political struggle in claiming this right to water. For those who have enough of empty slogans, impotent declarations and superficial analysis, this book opens up new theoretical perspectives and politically empowering insights that chart pathways for achieving real change.” – Erik Swyngedouw, Professor of Geography, University of Manchester

“The right to safe and sufficient drinking water for all is one of the main issues and struggles of our time. Unequal power relations at local, national and transnational scales, combined with policies and intervention practices that are often highly adverse for the vulnerable, make that those with water abundance tend to squander leaving the others to face ever greater injustice. This book’s diverse chapters provide an empirically rich and intellectually elaborate insight in the world of water, power, governance, and social mobilization” – Rutgerd Boelens, Coordinator Justicia Hídrica/Water Justice Alliance; Associate Professor Wageningen University, The Netherlands; Visiting Professor Catholic University Peru

“This edited collection by Sultana and Loftus comes at the right time, when the global financial collapse threatens to worsen the conditions of water injustice affecting millions in the planet. The book is an excellent contribution to international debates about the conceptual and practical intricacies of “the human right to water”. It should be read by scholars, students, practitioners and all those concerned with the eradication of structural water inequality and injustice” – José Esteban Castro, Professor of Sociology, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University