What is our most precious resource? Younger argues that abundant water resources can no longer be taken for granted. Violent regional conflicts already rage over fair access to water. All aspects of water must be considered: hydraulic, engineering, ecological, social and economic.

The one indispensable resource, water is increasingly controlled and even owned by private capital. By 2012, water was a trillion-dollar industry--and as population growth, industrial production, and ecological change make scarcity ever-more common, water may well become the source of military and political conflict in the years to come. This book looks at how we got here and what we can and should do next. Laying out the complex arguments surrounding...