Tapped Out: The Coming World Crisis in Water and What We Can Do about It

Simon, a former Democratic senator from Illinois, delivers a call-to-arms to citizens and political leaders to act to save the world's water supply. ""Within a few years,"" he writes, ""a water crisis of catastrophic proportions will explode on us."" Simon, who was a newspaperman before he was a politician, is a clear and forceful writer who makes use of compelling statistics to outline the looming crisis: 9500 children die every day due to thirst or polluted water and a projected three billion people will be living in regions afflicted by severe water shortages in just 25 years. Among the most immediate problems Simon covers are vanishing groundwater reserves in California, polluted drinking water in India and the potential for geopolitical violence in the arid Middle East. Simon urges governments to step up their support for desalination, conservation and pollution control. He also calls for policy changes such as charging consumers for the actual cost of conveying their water. Although suffering from a drought of firsthand vignettes and individual case studies, Simon's book is well reasoned and well researched and deserves serious attention--not least because he offers the bracing example of a former public servant still committed to the intelligent and informed discussion of a pressing issue. First serial to Parade. (Dec.)