What’s the big deal about water? We drink it, cook with it, clean ourselves, wash our clothes—everything humans have done for millennia. Whether we turn on the tap or buy bottles at the store, it always seems to be there for us. Sure, there are shortages or even droughts. We read about the horrors of bone-dry regions in the developing world. But here in the United States, clean, abundant water flows at the twist of a faucet.

But what if it didn’t?

Let’s start with some of the nasty effects it would have on you: 2% dehydration will seriously degrade physical and mental functions, while a 15% water deficiency is likely lethal. Unlike a vitamin or mineral shortfall, which can take weeks to make you sick, a water deficiency will kill in days or even hours. If you wanted to control a population, controlling the supply of water would be a good place to start.

Owning the world’s water sounds like a science-fiction plot or James Bond movie. But it’s not. Water supplies are being privatized at an alarming rate—and not just in Europe or the developing world. Here in the U.S., many city and county governments have handed their water systems over to private corporations. And none of these companies are based in America. The three biggest players are the Swiss company Nestlé , and two French companies, Suez and Veolia. These huge multinationals operate in countries all over the world. But the sales pitch is the same everywhere. Government is clumsy and inefficient. Let us take over your waterworks, and we’ll run them better and pay hefty royalties. Too good to be true? Maybe so.

At the same time, another global attack is taking shape. Suddenly, the big players in big oil are turning to water. You may have seen the headlines.  Water is the new oil. They call it Blue Gold. Clearly impressed by this argument is one of our most famous petroleum clans, the Bush family. Enriched beyond their wildest dreams by oil, the Bushes have gone into water in a big way. A dusty town named Chaco, Paraguay, has come dead center in their sights. Straddling the “three frontiers” of Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay, Chaco sits on top of a huge underground aquifer. In many countries, and in our own state of Texas, he who owns the land also owns the water under it. Documentary filmmaker Sam Bozzo asserts in the film Blue Gold that the Bushes are gearing up to pull the trigger on a 98,000 acre buy.  According to Bozzo, Jenna Bush has already been to the region to eyeball the new family holdings. The aquifer the Bushes covet (the Acuifero Guaraní) is one of the largest water reserves in the world. It runs beneath Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay—an area larger than Texas and California combined. Needless to say, the Bush family couldn’t be reached for comment.

So what do the Bushes know that we don’t?