Melosi, Martin V. (Author)
As an essential resource, water has been the object of warfare, political wrangling, and individual and corporate abuse. It has also become an object of commodification, with multinational corporations vying for water supply contracts in many countries. In Precious Commodity, Martin V. Melosi examines water resources in the United States and addresses whether access to water is an inalienable right of citizens, and if government is responsible for its distribution as a public good. Melosi provides historical background on the construction, administration, and adaptability of water supply and wastewater systems in urban America. He cites budgetary constraints and the deterioration of existing water infrastructures as factors leading many municipalities to seriously consider the privatization of their water supply. Melosi also views the role of government in the management of, development of, and legal jurisdiction over America's rivers and waterways for hydroelectric power, flood control, irrigation, and transportation access. Looking to the future, he compares the costs and benefits of public versus private water supply, examining the global movement toward privatization.
...MoreDescription Covers the history from the American Revolution to today.
Review Kupel, Douglas E. (2013) Review of "Precious Commodity: Providing Water for America's Cities". American Historical Review (pp. 220-221).
Chapter
Melosi, Martin V.;
(2003)
How Bad Theory Can Lead to Good Technology: Water Supply and Sewerage in the Age of Miasmas
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Article
Fonseca, Alberto;
Prado Filho, José Francisco do;
(2010)
Um esquecido marco do saneamento no Brasil: o sistema de águas e esgotos de Ouro Preto (1887--1890)
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Matthew Gandy;
(2014)
The fabric of space: Water, modernity, and the urban imagination
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Article
Taylor, Vanessa;
Trentmann, Frank;
(2011)
Liquid Politics: Water and the Politics of Everyday Life in the Modern City
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Book
Schneider, Daniel;
(2011)
Hybrid Nature: Sewage Treatment and the Contradictions of the Industrial Ecosystem
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Book
Jeremy J. Schmidt;
(2019)
Water: Abundance, Scarcity, and Security in the Age of Humanity
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Tim Stroshane;
(2016)
Drought, Water Law, and the Origins of California's Central Valley Project
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Robert R. Crifasi;
(2016)
A Land Made from Water: Appropriation and the Evolution of Colorado's Landscape, Ditches, and Water Institutions
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Erik Swyngedouw;
(2015)
Liquid Power: Contested Hydro-Modernities in Twentieth-Century Spain
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Thesis
Soppelsa, Peter S.;
(2009)
The Fragility of Modernity: Infrastructure and Everyday Life in Paris, 1870--1914
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Article
Shehab Ismail;
(2023)
The Engineer as Economist: Sewers and the Making of the Water Consumer in Colonial Cairo, 1890
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Article
Daigger, Glen;
(Spring 2011)
Sustainable Urban Water and Resource Management
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Chapter
Katherine W. Rinne;
(2010)
Water: The Currency of Cardinals in Late Renaissance Rome
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Article
Rita Padawangi;
(2017)
Building Knowledge, Negotiating Expertise: Participatory Water Supply Advocacy and Service in Globalizing Jakarta
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Book
Baker, J. Mark;
(2005)
The Kuhls of Kangra: Community-Managed Irrigation in the Western Himalaya
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Lynne Heasley;
Daniel Macfarlane;
(2016)
Border Flows: A Century of the Canadian-American Water Relationship
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Anna Domizia Bianco;
(2007)
Aqua ducta, aqua distribuita. La gestione delle risorse idriche in età romana
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Steven C. Schulte;
(2016)
As Precious as Blood: The Western Slope in Colorado's Water Wars, 1900-1970
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Book
Margaret A. Bickers;
(2014)
Red Water, Black Gold: The Canadian River in Western Texas, 1920–1999
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Book
John Opie;
Char Miller;
Kenna Lang Archer;
(2018)
Ogallala: Water for a Dry Land
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