L'eau que nous sommes

A vital element in danger.

“You are, and we all are, water,” Pierre Rabhi often replies to journalists who ask him about this vital element.

The ocean, one of our planet’s lungs, is in grave danger. For far too long, humans have treated it as a dumping ground, just like the seas and rivers. Intensive agriculture and the massive use of chemical fertilizers are the main causes of pollution and freshwater consumption. In France, pesticides are present in nearly all waterways and groundwater.

The approximately 60 researchers, farmers, and civil society activists interviewed for this book drive this point home forcefully: water is essential to life. Every day around the world, nearly a thousand children under the age of 5 die from drinking unsafe water. A source of greed for multinational corporations, water is a common good that requires collective management. How can we use it more sparingly, ecologically, equitably, and locally?

According to Pierre Rabhi, our relationship with this precious resource must change: it is high time we recognized its immense value.