The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved a Country from Corporate Greed

Broad (environmental politics, American Univ.) and Cavanagh (director, Institute for Policy Studies) join together in El Salvador to follow the harrowing journey of an environmental activist group: the water defenders. In this book based on their own reporting, the authors expand upon Salvadoran water conservation activists’ ten-year fight against foreign corporations like Pacific Rim Mining and OceanaGold, who sought to mine the land for gold deposits—which would cause irreversible damage to the region’s water supply and extensive harm to Indigenous communities. Several of the water defenders were abused, threatened, and murdered in their pursuit of ending mineral mining throughout El Salvador. As they gained international attention, support for their mission grew, as did their chances of stopping a project that would have left the lives of Salvadorans in ruin. Domestic and international communities can relate to the twists and turns of this story, which has echoes in several American cities today, as people continue to fight for access to clean, safe water.