With
climate change deepening the water crisis, wonky discussions of how to
manage our water systems are suddenly attracting increased public
attention. "Unlike oil, there's no substitute for fresh water," says
Maude Barlow, senior advisor on water to the president of the United Nations General Assembly. "We all need it."
In the musical "Urinetown," a severe
drought leaves the dwindling supplies of clean water in the hands of a
corporation called Urine Good Company. Urine Good Company makes a
fortune selling the precious commodity and running public toilets. It
pays off politicians to ward off regulation and inspection. It uses the
mechanisms of state control to repress an increasingly desperate and
impoverished population.
