Explaining the urgency of taking water and wastewater seriously in an age where good management and political will are chronically scarce, this book presents a moral, economic, and sustainable case for financing the work needed worldwide in the coming decades to ensure safe water for all. Arguing that water should not be free, it explores how the human right to water is about empowering people to make reasoned choices about their destiny, and how mismanagement and political expediency have contributed to global inequality. Written by a leading water consultant, this record uncovers the realities of a common future that lie behind the rhetoric.