3 stars leaning towards 2.

Feels more like a collection of journalistic pieces than a coherent book. I like the clear-cut structure (very essay-argument), but that falls a little flat as it feels less like a thesis defence than a rambling exploration. Not enough analysis and big picture as it jumps from location to location sketching the bare basics of each case. And was honestly so annoyed with the big deal that the author makes about him carrying water with the Indian women, trying to be all Bill Bryson all of a sudden - but that's my own pet peeve I guess.

Fascinating book with loads of great case studies!

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

A solid book that examines our habits of trying get to harness the hydrological cycle with massive dams and other waterworks. Fred Pearce finds that in most cases, these projects are doomed to fail because of the way water moves and what it carries.

A good read for anyone interested in dams and their effects. I think folks in British Columbia where the fight over the Site C dam is underway would find a lot of useful commentary in this book.

It ends by focusing on local solutions to managing water, not regional or national. He glossed over how the works in cross-border watersheds.

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.

I read this aloud to my middle son (age 14 years) as part of his geography curriculum for school. Published in 2018 it gave us great insight into the issues surrounding all things water supply around the world. We thoroughly enjoyed the book and it was my son who gave it the five star rating (though I agree wholeheartedly). I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the world's water situation.

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.

An interesting science read that takes you around the world on a tour of the world's rivers. He weaves together the scientific, economic, and historic dimensions of the water crisis.

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.

I listened to the audio version of the book, so I didn't see any references for the writing. It was an interesting book dealing with water - how it is used, what has happened to lakes in the world today. There were times when the book seemed repetitive (which happens often with non-fiction social science books). I am unsure if some of my bias against the book is from the fact that I disagreed with some of his points. Part of this book deals with agriculture (duh, it is about water) and I felt there wasn't a good understanding of the political/social toll of not growing food or cotton for some countries; there wasn't an idea of what nations/people should do in some countries ( Uzbekistan or Libya). It was a good book that caused me to think but I feel that it should have gone farther.

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, detailing bold and forward-thinking news plans from economists and water engineers and politicians and scientists around the world — all the ways in which we could save the water tables, grow crops more efficiently with more "crop per drop," irrigate more cheaply, supply urban populations more sustainably, etc.

But that's after chapter after chapter detailing such disasters as the Aral Sea, which the Soviets basically destroyed and which the current government is continuing to destroy, and the Salton Sea in California, created by a mistake and now allowed to become a festering, drying blister in the Sonora desert, and the Dead Sea, which is receding visibly every year. Worse, though, are the water tables. These are the underground reservoirs of water which, unlike rivers, are non-renewable. Much like oil, once you tap them dry, they're gone (and they also destabilize the surrounding earth, leading to erosion and possibly even earthquakes), and farmers and cities around the world, from the American west to India, are tapping them at an alarming rate. Everyone knows that wells used to hit water at 200 feet and now have to go 1500 feet or more, but this doesn't stop everyone from trying to get the last drop.

It is the Tragedy of the Commons on a regional scale. As many of the farmers Fred Pearce interviews point out: "If everyone stopped using the water, that would be great, but if only we do, it won't make a difference, except that our family will starve."

When the Rivers Run Dry is a bit of travel journalism that covers nearly every continent. India and China and their respective mistreatment of the Ganges, the Indus, the Yellow and the Yangtze rivers are all covered, as is the madness that is Los Angeles and Las Vegas, currently draining the Colorado River dry and casting thirsty eyes thousands of miles north to the Great Lakes.

While America's water woes are certainly serious (at least in the west), the most tragic regions of the world are, predictably, the places where government policy is completely disconnected from local resource management, or where politics and war mix violently with water rights. China and the former Soviet Union have literally killed millions in man-made floods. The author's visit to the region around the Aral Sea was particularly depressing, as he describes a stunted, poisoned land where the people have no jobs, no hope, and no future. Then there is the Middle East, where Palestinians go thirsty in sight of Israeli swimming pools.

While there are some compelling stories in here, and enough facts and history to make you think, When the Rivers Run Dry was... well, a bit dry. Fred Pearce has been to many places and talked to many people, and what he's produced is a global atlas of water mismanagement, wrapped up in the end with a few cheery programs that might solve a few of them, and some suggestions that no one is really going to heed. He questions the wisdom of dam-building, says that cities like Los Angeles and Las Vegas need to be more conservation-minded, and that farmers worldwide need to use more water-efficient irrigation methods.

Yup, good luck with that.



I think Charles Fishman's The Big Thirst was a better read on this subject.

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 of the water problems plaguing many parts of the world today.