David Sedlak’s Water for All: Global Solutions for a Changing Climate focuses on the global challenges associated with access to water, an indispensable resource whose scarcity raises existential questions for us all. Sedlak’s book is not a typical scholarly volume reviewed on these pages. The author is a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and therefore, he does not approach the volume as a scholar in our discipline would. The discussion is not set within any particular theoretical framework—grounded in political science or another discipline—and does not anchor the case studies with a specific overarching argument. The central value of the monograph lies in the rich case studies it uses to make a clear policy prescription: access to water for all citizens can only be realized if water is treated not only as a marketable commodity but also as a basic right.
The book is divided into six parts. It begins by breaking up the issue of water crises into six clear categories: water for the rich, for the masses, for those without piped connections, for good health, for food, and for ecosystems. While none of these categories exist in isolation, Sedlak argues that such differentiation enables us to better understand the limitations of the current approaches to solving the problems that exist under the broad, undifferentiated and largely unhelpful category of “the Global Water Crisis”: it does so by forcing us to acknowledge that the causes, the impact, as well as the solutions are different in each of these specific categories. It does not come as a surprise that rich cities are able to address these issues the best, usually working on solutions long before a problem reaches crisis levels. Cities in emerging economies with large middle-class populations also develop creative approaches to deal with impending shortages. The problem is most challenging for the rural poor as well as for parts of cities that are not served by water utilities: these populations are unable to access water unless they spend much of their time or their money doing so. The consequences are devastating in terms of health outcomes and poverty alleviation. A second problem facing many of these populations is that the groundwater is both contaminated and overexploited, and they have scant access to technology that addresses water quality and availability. For this group, Sedlak prescribes international norm-setting, foreign aid, and the use of a variety of technologies.
In part two of the book, Sedlak focuses on the impact of the great acceleration—increasing social and economic development during the twentieth century—on resources. Here, he considers the impact on water both as a result of existential needs and the need to produce energy. The complex relationship between water use, energy production, and climate change defies easy ways of addressing future crises. The book points out, for example, that while use of fossil fuels to power transportation has negative externalities in the form of pollution, greater reliance on traditional power generation exacts a heavy price on our water supplies. The discussion he presents leaves us with a somewhat positive prognosis for African countries where such acceleration has not yet begun: Sedlak argues that these countries can hope to learn from the mistakes of others and of the past and leapfrog into adopting the technologies that are already available or currently being developed.
The following three sections focus on solutions. The first solution is conservation: the author investigates how conservation and efficient use can be useful instruments in our quest for continued and safe access to water. Availability can expand through conservation, and to that end, the author considers how various communities across the income spectrum can and have reduced water use by adopting conservation programs. Such changes in use patterns make water available without spending more resources on creating new infrastructure. The second set of solutions deals with expansion of access by resorting to water infrastructure used in past eras: these include wells, dams, and reservoirs, even though the financial as well as human costs of these are well-known by now. Finally, Sedlak discusses unconventional solutions such as rainwater harvesting, recycling sewage, and other wastewater to replenish groundwater, desalination of seawater, and so on. Some of these unconventional solutions have been in use for decades: the discussion in this section will be eye-opening for many who do not consider recycled water to be a part of their own drinking water supply. The future of water supply will have to rely on these solutions to a greater extent as population continues to increase, developmental needs multiply, and resources such as water fall under heavier stress. Ultimately, a combination of technology and policy innovations will have to address the problems of the future: the final section, therefore, focuses on ideas that combine conservation with a variety of new technologies: creating self-sustaining buildings, cities, and regions. Ultimately, the author argues, our ability to address water crises will depend on our resolve to recognize the different categories of crisis and to agree to address them. Sedlak correctly argues that poverty alleviation, within this context, is both an end and a means to the end of achieving water access.
The range of case studies that Sedlak presents in the book provides its central value and the strongest rationale for recommending it. As such, it is particularly appropriate for those interested in learning about resource use and addressing emerging resource problems through public policy. It provides a range of solutions—both expensive and technologically complex ones, as well as relatively simple and inexpensive ones. It clearly acknowledges the complexity of the problem and argues that one-size-fits-all solutions do not work in this issue area. While the wealthy can turn to market solutions, the latter create challenges for the rural poor that require governments, international institutions, and a host of others to collectively find redress. Finally, it clearly states the centrality of conservation in finding solutions.
The wealth of case studies provides a range of answers, but the book does not present readers with political analyses of problems and solutions. Given the author’s training, it is unfair to expect such analysis. However, for scholars of politics, the abiding concern lies in understanding how political systems produce outcomes that help or hinder economic and social progress, and how these systems can be designed to at least provide beneficial outcomes to the people they serve. Sedlak provides the reader with solutions, but understandably is silent about how we can coax them out of the political systems within which we exist. The volume should be used as a resource—a sourcebook for furthering political analysis as well as policy innovation. The author ends by assuring us that while addressing water crises in different parts of the world will not be easy, the difficult work today has the potential of assuring access to water for future generations.
