Too Important: Water and Resistance

Abstract

As we have described and discussed in the preceding chapters, water issues take shape in a variety of ways. From concerns regarding access and pollution, to drought and flooding as attendant effects of global climate change, to privatization and corporate consolidation of water supplies and the deceptive marketing of bottled water, water is at the centre of a diverse array of issues with unique criminological relevance. Indeed, as our title and framing suggest, water issues can be thought of as constituting and falling on a spectrum of extremes—water is often too dirty, expensive or secured, access to water is too restricted, while flooding and geographically and socially dependent overabundance give some too much water. In this chapter, we demonstrate a global recognition of the importance of water by highlighting and describing a few of the countless social, political and cultural moments and movements resisting the harms associated with inadequate access, poor quality, privatization and habitus. Each of the moments of resistance noted in this chapter is connected: at the centre of each is a call for ‘water justice’.