Last Drop

Journalist Tim Smedley, an award-winning environmental writer, argues that the shortage of fresh water may become the defining climate challenge of the coming years. Lack of water, along with contamination caused by pollution, is already forcing people to leave their homes. Rivers now run dry before they reach the sea, ancient lakes are vanishing, and fourteen of the twenty largest urban areas on Earth face scarcity or drought.

Smedley contends that human handling of water is unsustainable, endangering both ecosystems and people. Yet some countries that were severely short of water, Singapore and Israel among them, have quietly turned their situations around and now have a surplus, while Chennai and California still struggle. The book asks what those successes teach and how their methods could be applied across the world.

Smedley examines familiar questions. Must crops such as almonds and asparagus, grown in the deserts of California and Peru, be given up? Can turning seawater into drinking water help, or does rainwater capture offer more? Are bolder ideas, like towing icebergs to Cape Town, reckless or a necessary leap forward?

Travelling widely, Smedley meets scientists, people affected by the crisis, campaigners and inventors. The book first looks squarely at the present situation and how it developed, then turns to remedies. It traces the environmental and human forces behind the problem and proposes practical steps for restoring the water supplies on which we all depend.