Reflections: Understanding Our Use and Abuse of Water - Hardcover

by Mark Zeitoun (Author)

Water is central to all life, but we use it to destroy. Water can nourish, but we use it to starve. It can cleanse and unify, but we ensure it contaminates and divides. The consequences of continuing to desecrate or beginning to restore water's inner grace are tremendous--and will reflect as much on us as portend our future. Drawing upon twenty-five years of professional work as a water engineer, negotiator, and scholar, Mark Zeitoun provides a unique insider's account of this phenomenon. He explains how unchecked assumptions about water mix with political and economic systems to create an insatiable and ruinous thirst for ever more water. He shows how we use water to lethal effect in wars, and demolish drinking-water systems with wanton disregard. He questions why we transform the most majestic of rivers into canals which spark international conflict and challenge our capacity for preventative diplomacy. The answers reflect more about our society than we might care to admit.

Author Biography

Dr. Mark Zeitoun's research focuses on international transboundary water conflict and cooperation, the influence of armed conflict on water services, and the links between water and health. This stems from his work as a humanitarian-aid water engineer, and advisor on water security policy and transboundary water negotiations throughout the Middle East and Africa. He studied engineering at McGill University in Montreal and human geography at King's College London.