Liquid Asset How Business and Government Can Partner to Solve the Freshwater Crisis / Barton H. Thompson, Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Thompson, Barton H., Jr., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Water-supply--United States--Management.

Water-supply.

Water-supply--Government policy--United States.

Public-private sector cooperation--United States.

Public-private sector cooperation.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (303 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California Stanford University Press, [2024]

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

A sweeping, policy-oriented account of the private and public management of the world's essential natural resource. Governments dominated water management throughout the twentieth century. Tasked with ensuring a public supply of clean, safe, reliable, and affordable water, governmental agencies controlled water administration in most of the world. They built the dams, reservoirs, and aqueducts that store water when available and move that water to areas with increasing populations and economies. Private businesses sometimes played a part in managing water, but typically in a supporting position as consultants or contractors. Today, given the global need for innovative new technologies, institutions, and financing to solve the freshwater crisis, private businesses and markets are playing a rapidly expanding role, bringing both new approaches and new challenges to a historically public field. In Liquid Asset, Barton H. Thompson, Jr. examines the growing position of the private sector in the "business of water." Thompson seeks to understand the private sector's involvement in meeting the water needs of both humans and the environment, looks at the potential risks that growing private involvement poses to the public interest in water, and considers the obstacles that private organizations face in trying to participate in a traditionally governmental sector. Thompson provides a richly detailed analysis to foster both improved public policy and responsible business behavior. As the book demonstrates, the story of private businesses and water offers a window into the serious challenges facing freshwater today, and their potential solutions.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction: Solving the Freshwater Crisis: Private Solutions and Public Interests

PART I: Context

Introduction

1. The Growing Freshwater Crisis

2. Why Businesses Care About Water

PART II: Commodification Debates

3. Private Suppliers of Drinking Water

4. Water Markets

5. Environmental Water Investors

6. Thinking of Water as an Asset

PART III: Transforming Freshwater Management

7. Innovative Technologies and Tools

8. New Financing Options

9. Change Agents and Experts

PART IV: Toward a Sustainable Water Future

10. Corporate Water Stewardship

11. Conclusion: Four Policy Recommendations

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Thompson, Barton H., Jr. Liquid Asset

ISBN:

9781503637351

1503637352

OCLC:

1410900996