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When the Rivers Run Dry: Water - The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-first Century

Fred Pearce

3.95 · Rating details · 823 ratings · 108 reviews

In this groundbreaking book, veteran science correspondent Fred Pearce travels to more than thirty countries to examine the current state of crucial water sources. Deftly weaving together the complicated scientific, economic, and historic dimensions of the world water crisis, he provides our most complete portrait yet of this growing danger and its ramifications for us all ...more

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Paperback, 336 pages

Published March 15th 2007 by Beacon Press (first published March 1st 2006)

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Mar 19, 2015 David rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: rice farmers, dam-builders, sunbathers at the Salton Sea

Shelves: science, non-fiction, audiobook, sociology, environmentalism

This is another one of those depressing books that catalogs in grim detail just how badly humans are screwing up the environment, on a cataclysmic scale, how greed, desperation, and short-sightedness have destroyed entire ecosystems, devastated nations, and displaced millions, and how even though we have the scientific and technological know-how to do better, we're not going to, because short-term thinking always wins.

Oh, the author ends with an optimistic chapter, as all these books do, detaili ...more

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May 19, 2008 Lindsey rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2008-read, non-fiction

this is my University's common reading program book for this year. So, now that I've finished it, I have to come up with a way to make it enticing and relevent to a bunch of freshmen (last year's group didn't like Mountains Beyond Mountains, which I loved). The premise of this book is great and it certainly stimulated all of my co-workers also reading the book to think about the issue of water use on both a personal and global level. However, it is extremely repetitive and could easily be signif ...more

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Feb 25, 2008 Jane rated it it was amazing

The book begins with amazing facts, such as: It takes between 250 and 650 gallons of water to make one bag of rice. While one person may drink only 250 gallons (or one ton) of water annually, the water used to cloth and provide food for them annually would fill half an Olympic-size swimming pool (or between 1,500 and 2,000 tons). I've just begun, but am hooked. What if the nutrition labels on food bags listed all the hidden amounts of energy and water it took to create the end food product? (And ...more

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Feb 23, 2011 Chris rated it liked it

Very readable and packed with fascinating information. But DEPRESSING. The world's fresh water situation is beyond hopeless. And, it going to get worse. Something to look forward to.

The only problem with this book is the complete lack of citations, which is puzzling. ...more

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Feb 26, 2010 Julie Laporte rated it it was amazing

This book is EXCELLENT. If you only read one book about our water crisis, this is the one! And if you love it like I did, I'd recommend following it up with Water Follies, which is also about rivers, but focuses on a few in the US only...but in more detail. This book is more of an overview of the globe. It's VERY easy to read...if I remember correctly, it's written by a journalist who has chronicled river news for decades, given his inherent interest. The last parts of the book really touch on a ...more

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Feb 15, 2019 Samuel Peck rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A very informative read about water - the shortage of it, the mismanagement of it, some of the solutions attempting to salvage the situation - that at times comes across as depressing.

The author undoubtedly is knowledgeable, but the book could have been better edited - it reads like an unrelenting barrage of disparate journalistic articles, instead of a more coherent thread reflecting a bigger picture.

Despite the flaws, this is still worth a read for anyone interested in obtaining a quick scan ...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Camille rated it really liked it

A frightening look at just HOW MUCH we've screwed up this planet of ours. Each chapter looks at a certain type of water crisis, in several areas. To be honest, after a couple chapters, it becomes a monotonous stream of, "John Lockson at the So-and-So Bureau reported that the [Insert Great River Name] once had a flow of 100 million acre-feet, it is now reduced to a fifth of that." After the initial shock about the water situation, I didn't find it really interesting until the last third of the bo ...more

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Nov 16, 2011 Andrew rated it it was ok

A lukewarm 'ok/like' because the subject matter is so incredibly important and it hearkens back to my geology days. It's a subject I like to read about.
But, given that the subject matter is so numbers-driven, why no graphs and charts to help better visualize the issues. Also, no photos. Why? Also, no introduction to basic hydrology and aquifers (with diagrams). The last section was pretty good (but no images or resources links to get more information). A decent book that could have been present ...more

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Feb 03, 2009 Alan rated it really liked it

This book gives some dire warnings about mismanagement of our world's rivers - the damming of rivers and pumping of aquifers causes more destruction by floods and drought (which is not what the dam-builders of the world would tell you). Not an uplifting book, but a very good book for those who agree that water is a major resource to be fought over in the 21st century.
...more

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Jan 13, 2021 Peter Corrigan rated it really liked it

This was a nice survey of the 'state of the planet's waters', written back 2006. Which is just far enough back to be relevant but provides some interesting checks on the many predictions (mainly of doom and gloom) that are made. Not saying much of it is not warranted. Water is of course the most essential material on earth and it is under pressure in myriad ways as well-documented by Fred Pearce, an English journalist/science writer. He did a fair amount of research for this and traveled widely ...more

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Jul 31, 2020 Jeddie Marie added it

Shelves: dnf-d

read chapters 1, 3, 8, 12, 21, 22, 23, and 24 for my geology course. it was bleak and depressing. sad yeehaw.

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Dec 27, 2011 Jonathan Biddle rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobooks, 2012

Overview
In When the Rivers Run Dry, Fred Pearce takes us on a journey across the world exploring the great sources of water and how humans have interacted with them down through history. Pearce uses stories of his travels to provide an effective structure for the book and push the reader through what would be boring statistics by themselves. Three-fourths of the book focuses on the problems while the remaining fourth describes and suggests a few possible solutions.

Strengths
* Pearce's passion ab ...more

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Jun 02, 2015 Ray rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Written in 2006, Fred Pearces's book "When the Rivers Run Dry", seems somewhat prophetic to those of us living in the Southwest United States. The Colorado River, the lifeblood of the Southwest, is severely overused, and upstream demands means it no longer flows to the sea. With reduced river flows and diminished snow pack in the Rockies and Sierra Nevada mountains, water supplies in the Southwestern states are severely stretched. As 2015 news accounts describe, California has been in a drou Written in 2006, Fred Pearces's book "When the Rivers Run Dry", seems somewhat prophetic to those of us living in the Southwest United States. The Colorado River, the lifeblood of the Southwest, is severely overused, and upstream demands means it no longer flows to the sea. With reduced river flows and diminished snow pack in the Rockies and Sierra Nevada mountains, water supplies in the Southwestern states are severely stretched. As 2015 news accounts describe, California has been in a drought for several years, and significant water restrictions have been issued statewide. But water issues reach well beyone just the Southwest United states. Many other regions are suffering similar impacts, as Fred Pearce describes in his book.

Locally, Southern California's Salton Sea, as well as Lake Mead and Lake Powell in the U.S. Southwest, are shrinking rapidly. On a more global scale, the Aral Sea in Asia, once the world's 4th largest lake, has all but disappeared. Southwest Brazil is undergoing a terrible drought, as are parts of China, Australia, Spain, Syria, Iraq, Africa, etc. And as leaders have tried to solve the problems by damming rivers, creating man-made lakes, creating huge irrigation projects, matters seem to just be getting worse. Water is wasted through inadequate water infrastructure, groundwater aquifers are incapable of being replenished, wells are running dry world-wide, and what water which does reach groundwater sources often is so polluted as to be useless for consumption or agriculture. Dams created to prevent flooding prove incapable of fulfilling their mission, resulting in devastation to towns, villages, and downstream population. We hear of some of these situations, over time, but the totality and impact of the problem often doesn't register. But this book certainly drives the point home.

In addition to the various places around the world suffering from water shortages, Pearce describes numerous and well detailed examples of failed water infrastructure projects, increased pollution of fresh water supplies, and the folly of a number of gone-bad water resource improvement policies. As world population increases, water resources are being over used, and it only takes a few years of lower rainfall, lower snowpack in mountains, shrinking glaciers, or poor water management decisions to push regions into crisis. The beauty of the book is that the chapters are very short, examples are clear and to the point, and extremely easy to read. It's truly a book for the layman, easy to understand without being superficial.

It may be an exaggeration to compare this book and its impact to Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring", but as Carson's book highlighted the problems of pesticides and DDT, kickstarting the environmental movement at the end of the 20th century, Pearce's book highlights water pollution and shortages as the defining crisis of the twenty-first century. Hopefully, this book and others like it will raise attention and resources to address the water crises around the world.

When beginning the book, the examples make you feel that the earth can barely supply enough water for its current population. But Pearce leaves us with some hopeful prospects for the future. The good news is that water is the ultimate renewable resource. We never destroy water. We may mismanage it, pollute it, waste it, but sooner or later, it will return one day. The difficulty is in ensuring that the water we need will be there, when and where we need it. Pearce shows where we mismanage water, and where we have the potential for doing better. The solution in most cases is not more and bigger engineering schemes, giant desert canals or megadams. These projects tend to be hugely expensive, and cause as many problems as the solve.

Recreating flood plains, recovering ancient water delivery systems, selected dam removals, drip irrigation techniques, porous pavement initiatives in major cities, natural steps to refill aquifers, capturing monsoonal rains, rooftop rain capture, etc. are all effective tools to improve our precious water supplies. But of course, fixing the problem requires being AWARE of the problem, and "When the Rivers Run Dry" brings the problems, along with some solutions (and a promise for more intelligent water usage in the future), to light. ...more

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Aug 05, 2014 Phyllis rated it it was amazing

Great book!
We can live without oil, but we can’t live without water.
Fred Pearce, author of Rivers Run Dry, has traveled and studied water in 30 countries and has been writing about water issues for over 20 years. His analysis of how we are committing what is termed hydraulic suicide with our water footprint is terrifying and calls all of us to action. It is a compelling book documenting the destruction of this resource as well as highlighting efforts being done to reclaim fresh water.

The outlook Great book!
We can live without oil, but we can’t live without water.
Fred Pearce, author of Rivers Run Dry, has traveled and studied water in 30 countries and has been writing about water issues for over 20 years. His analysis of how we are committing what is termed hydraulic suicide with our water footprint is terrifying and calls all of us to action. It is a compelling book documenting the destruction of this resource as well as highlighting efforts being done to reclaim fresh water.

The outlook is not good. Already we have examples of wasted water resources, like the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan where the Russians tried to grow cotton in the desert using water from the Aral. Today the Aral is completely dry. The constant salt exposure gives the Aral sea residents high incident of anemia, 95% in children. Some of the fishing towns near this area haven’t seen water in decades. Other areas of note are the poisoned springs of Palestine and the Jordan River, where Israeli control of the water supply has only fed conflict between Israelis and Palestinians and access to water continues to be a major negotiating issue between Israel and its neighbors. Israel uses 2/3’s of its water supply to raise crops that generate 2% of its GDP and exports these products of oranges and tomatoes. Look at what the textile industries in India have done to the Indus River and its neighbor Pakistan. Geography dictates that India can cut off Pakistan’s access to the Indus.

In the last couple of weeks we have learned of the creation of a new lake in the Tunesia desert called Lake Gafsa. It is believed to have been caused by a tremor fracture of an underground reservoir. When it first appeared it was blue and now it has turned green and filled with algae and authorities are concerned that the water is carcinogenic because of its proximity to phosphorous mining in the region. Warnings have not stopped locals from swimming and drinking the water.

In our own country we have the disappearing of the Colorado River, whose reservoirs were once the lifeblood of seven states.

The Rio Grande now ceases to exist shortly after it passes El Paso. The Colorado no longer makes it all the way to the Pacific as it once did. Phoenix and Scottsdale take 1/5 of the flow of the Colorado. Arizona pumps 2X’s the water from the Colorado that is replenished from rain.

What is especially troubling is cases like the Colorado or the Rio Grande where every last drop is spoken for because changes in one area of the river can have multiple effect downstream. Conservation isn’t the only answer. We need better management of our waters and wetlands not just dams.

I want to highlight the most recent news regarding the algae growing in Lake Erie and its effect of access to clean water in Southeast Michigan and Toledo. We don’t have to travel the world to see the mismanagement of our resources and the need for clean water. I challenge each of you to become more aware of why and how we need to better manage this major resource by reading and discussing this book and others on the topic of Clean Water. ...more

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Jun 15, 2009 Yvonne rated it really liked it

Shelves: labcoat-and-specimen-jar, non-ficciones

The author, Fred Pearce, is a journalist who has been traveling around the world and writing about water issues for over twenty years. It definitely shows in the style of this book. In 300+ pages, he takes you on a whirlwind tour around the globe to illustrate the dire situation that the global water supply is in. The case studies that Pearce describes show very vividly how fragile our supply to water is and how devastating our failure to protect it can be. THe chapters are short and centered ar The author, Fred Pearce, is a journalist who has been traveling around the world and writing about water issues for over twenty years. It definitely shows in the style of this book. In 300+ pages, he takes you on a whirlwind tour around the globe to illustrate the dire situation that the global water supply is in. The case studies that Pearce describes show very vividly how fragile our supply to water is and how devastating our failure to protect it can be. THe chapters are short and centered around illustrating different types of problems, from poisoned wells, dissappearing aquifers, dead rivers and vanishing wetlands to salt encrusted farm land and dangerous dams. It's sobering, to say the least.

This book is definitely not written in an apocalyptic tone, but after the first 100 pages I was terrified. His story about what has happened to the people of Uchsai, on the (former) shore of the Aral Sea was heart breaking without any embellishment. Reading its description, I thought that if any place was hell on earth this was surely it. Fortunately, he also ends the book by talking about examples of what people are doing to possibly stem this crisis. Those chapters were really fascinating. They dealt mostly with decentralized, relatively low-tech solutions and really drove home the realization that, in many cases, hubristic attempts to centrally control water have ended us in deep shit.

One of the things I most appreciated about this book is that Pearce discusses these issues from many angles. I learned about biology, hydrology, political history, economics, social conditions etc., all in a very accessible language.
For example: he discusses water politics between Palestine and Israel, the draining of Lake Chad in Africa, the heartbreak of trying to tame CHina's Yellow river, the decimation of the Colorado, Qaddafi's "manmade river" project, etc... One of my favorite chapters was about the Mekong River in Cambodia. Discussion of water issues in SOuth America is pretty scant. Because he covers so much ground it could get tiring at times for a book of 300+ pages. Ultimately though, it's a book that I learned a lot from and am grateful for reading. Even if you don't plan on reading the whole thing, it's definitely worth picking up and reading the parts that sound most intriguing to you since it does read like a collection of well-researched articles.

I wish everyone I know would read it to get a better understanding of why water is such a crucial issue- how it's elementally tied to power, politics and survival on so many scales (and always has been).
Read it!!! He's not the most stunning writer, but he's a skilled one and his experience and the subject matter make it worth the effort. ...more

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Apr 15, 2020 Mark Valentine rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Pearce has updated his book of the same title but here he gives it a new subtitle (the 2007 version is subtitled, "Water--The Defining Crisis of the 21st Century"). Pearce's book needs to sit on the same shelf as the incredible book by Dahr Jamail, "The End of Ice" (2019); they share the message only on different avenues.

In reading Pearce, I learned of some of the catastrophes we have unleashed. For example, I had not known before that in China, in 1938 when the Japanese Army was invading China ...more

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May 22, 2009 Eliza rated it really liked it

What I enjoyed about this book was that it was written as a series of case studies around the world that each tackled a different set of water-related issues. Also, it was written by a journalist which made it highly readable and entertaining, while still maintaining a fairly academic feel. Also, he personally travelled & interviewed most of the people he discusses, which makes his stories more personal & compelling. His thoughts on the Aral Sea & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict were extremely ...more

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May 03, 2019 Brandon Pytel rated it really liked it

Pearce travels around the world, exploring country's major rivers and the destruction that mankind has brought them. He gives us the twentieth century soltuions to twenty-first century problems, in the engineering feats lauded over in the WPA era and the consequences they’re having today to address population control and ecosystem damage.

These structures are now prone to even more, with increased floods, changing weather patterns and the population booms. Many of these structures, whether cana ...more

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Apr 27, 2010 Martin Empson rated it liked it

This isn't a cheerful book. Pearce offers us a glimpse of a future were millions of people suffer from drought and water shortages. But he does show how a different approach could solve many problems. He challenges the idea of big engineering problems as the solution, and shows how localised projects across the world could solve many of the problems associated with wate - in this sense the book is a hopeful one that does also offer a glimpse of a much better society - where human society is much ...more

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Oct 24, 2014 Douglas Gorney rated it really liked it

The next wars won't be about oil. They'll be about water. Doubt that? Read this book.

When the Rivers Run Dry is a litany of abuses to our planet's fresh water systems. If Fred Pearce ticks them off in stultifying succession, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee-style, it's not his fault: he's listing only some of the worst examples in making his point.

Add this to the tectonic shifts that humanity should make—away from a carbon-based, growth economy, for instance—but won't, until nature shifts us, the ...more

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Sep 10, 2018 Emma rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: politics, eco-toxic, economy-micro, ecology, sc-2026

A major crisis is not building, but well on its way. It will define the 21st century, as water is of the utmost importance for us all.

The book provides the details of many spots on Earth, about the problems and the solutions found to water scarcity and abundance. It should be part of every country's education curriculum.

Though, buy the newest 2018 edition if you can, not the 2006 edition I'm reading, as new developments inevitably shed a new light. ...more

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May 22, 2008 Maureen rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Everyone

Recommended to Maureen by: UMW

Shelves: science, umw-booklist, ecology

This is a stunning book: very well researched, very readable, and very comprehensive.
Unless we find new ways of dealing with this situation, there could be many more floods and
periods of drought in our future. The Southeast US is one of the threatened areas: this is not only a global issue, but also a local one. I give this book my highest recommendation.

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Oct 21, 2018 Andrew rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

One thing struck when reading this book: the Water Framework Directive requires European countries to bring their rivers to good quality status. However, European citizens see nothing wrong about demanding increased quantities of cheap cotton and food from countries like China, India and Uzbekistan where the production of this cotton and food is destroying local water supplies.

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Apr 03, 2009 Christopher Mims rated it it was amazing

Science journalism at its very best; devastating in its implications.

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May 18, 2013 Heather rated it did not like it

There are absolutely no sources cited!! How can this be credible in the least? It's full of statistics that aren't referenced. ...more

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Jun 21, 2019 Ruben Baetens rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Amazingly documented worldwide overview of men-made hydrological problems, and how to solve them.

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Oct 19, 2018 Shabbeer Hassan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-star-ones, politics, makes-you-think, south-asian-politics, environmentalism

An exceedingly scary book, much more than what King or Lovecraft or Trump can imagine/do! And the reason why I call it scary is that its happening all around us and the bleak future we have ahead of us. Freshwater, one of the most precious resources we have, had been once treasured dearly and wisely used. But as the pace of industrialisation quickened and the population density rose, short-term gains overtook the long-term ones.

And with them came - DAMS!

Dams were once called the temples of the ...more

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Mar 05, 2018 Seongkyul rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, developmentyshtuff

This was my first introduction to Water - inspired by my NYE visit to a wetland near Shangrila, Yunnan and the realization that I knew nothing of wetlands or environmental issues in general. I cried and laughed and rolled over a few times reading this -- it was pure joy/sorrow following the story of water across major rivers, aquifers, wetlands, manmade canals, dams, boreholes of this world... (which also gave much insight into rise and fall of civilizations and the extent of importance of agric ...more

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Mar 10, 2017 Rachael rated it liked it

Like many other reviewers I was hit pretty hard by the social issues highlighted in this book. We've seen time-lapse images where rivers and lakes are evaporating away, or where the sea level shifts, and we all know that humans are causing these changes, but in a weird way I always assumed it was simply our effect on the atmosphere (cars, industrialisation, etc). I was left feeling uneasy when every chapter of this book gave some horrible example of greed or ignorance when it comes to water. The ...more

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Sep 13, 2017 Alex rated it really liked it

This book is the best. If you only read one book on the water crisis, this should be the one. This is a comprehensive look at how water shortages impact people all over the world and how they have dealt with it in the twenty-first century. Pearce did an amazing job researching and performing case studies in order to be able to put this book together. I love the way that it is organized and broken down into sections. His writing style is both captivating and interesting. Love it.

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About Fred Pearce

Fred Pearce

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Fred Pearce is an English author and journalist based in London. He has been described as one of Britain's finest science writers and has reported on environment, popular science and development issues from 64 countries over the past 20 years. He specialises in global environmental issues, including water and climate change, and frequently takes heretic and counter-intuitive views - "a sceptic in ...more