Green criminology, water issues, human rights and private profit

Fresh water is a basic essential of life. It is fundamental to the wellbeing of humans, to ecosystems and to flora and fauna. It constitutes the lifeblood of many industries, from tourism to mining, agriculture to aquaculture. Activities and events that threaten the quantity and quality of fresh water therefore have major negative consequences for health, business success and national security. What is more, water is “one of the world’s greatest renewable resources and is a natural monopoly essential to health and wellbeing” (Whelan & White, 2005, p. 135). In other words, clean safe water presents as a biological, social, economic, and spiritual necessity for contemporary society (Archer, 1998, p. 30).

While essential to life, there are presently a number of threats to fresh water supply on a world scale. The scarcity of water is itself part of the problems. As this chapter demonstrates, water issues have a number of dimensions and from the point of view of human rights can be analysed in relation to notions of crime, criminality and social and ecological justice. Who owns and controls water, and how they do so, is of major concern.