"Celebrates the spiritual and traditional role water has played in communities throughout history and warns that water privatization threatens cultures and livelihoods worldwide"-- Provided by publisher.

Originally published: Cambridge, MA : South End Press, c2002. Includes index.

Introduction: converting abundance into scarcity -- Water rights: the state, the market, the community -- Climate change and the water crisis -- The colonization of rivers: dams and water wars -- The World Bank, the WTO, and corporate control over water -- Food and water -- Converting scarcity into abundance -- The sacred waters.