Water Wars

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Forget oil, water is now considered by many to be the most precious resource on the planet.

Clean, fresh, drinking water is growing scarcer by the decade. While it dominates news this week from the villages destroyed by tidal waves, it goes much further.

Experts warn of a future dominated by an OPEC-like cartel of water-exporting nations. Already pipelines from Scotland to England and Turkey into central Europe are under consideration and companies are bidding on glacier water from the artic to sell abroad.

This hour the Connection’s series “Innovation That Matters” continues with Ashok Gadgil, an environmental physicist who has found a way to clean the dirty water in villages from Mexico to the Philippines. H2O as a commodity to be bought and sold or drinking water as a fundamental human right.

Guests:

Ashok Gadgil, environmental physicist at Lawerence Berkeley National Laboratory.