Deep Water

Deep Water

"If the wars of the last century were fought over oil, the wars of this century will be fought over water." -Ismail Serageldin, The World Bank The giant dams of today are the modern Pyramids, colossally expensive edifices that generate monumental amounts of electricity, irrigated water, and environmental and social disaster. With Deep Water, Jacques Leslie offers a searching account of the current crisis over dams and the world's water. An emerging master of long-form reportage, Leslie makes the crisis vivid through the stories of three distinctive figures: Medha Patkar, an Indian activist who opposes a dam that will displace thousands of people in western India; Thayer Scudder, an American anthropologist who studies the effects of giant dams on the peoples of southern Africa; and Don Blackmore, an Australian water manager who struggles to reverse the effects of drought so as to allow Australia to continue its march to California-like prosperity. Taking the reader to the sites of controversial dams, Leslie shows why dams are at once the hope of developing nations and a blight on their people and landscape. Deep Water is an incisive, beautifully written, and deeply disquieting report on a conflict that threatens to divide the world in the coming years.

Deep Water Ports

Rice in Deep Water

Rice in Deep Water gives a detailed description of the complex agroecosystem and the growth and development of deepwater rice, a fascinating crop grown by subsistence farmers in the deltas and floodplains of Asia and West Africa flooding to depths of 2-3 metres. An account of the various cultural methods and socioeconomic conditions of the farmers is given, current research efforts to increase productivity discussed and research priorities suggested. The book is designed and profusely illustrated so as to emphasize the complexity and dynamic nature of plant and environment, an aspect so often poorly appreciated and misunderstood.