If you had to choose, would you trade water for rivers of gold? More than 20 years ago, mining corporations posed this dilemma to the people of El Salvador, promising that the precious metals industry would bring progress. But "green mining" only brought poisoned watersheds and springs, as well as the persecution of those who rose up against dispossession and destruction. Here, Robin Broad and John Cavanagh chronicle the unlikely triumph of those in El Salvador who decided to defend water and formed a popular resistance movement that confronted death and corruption through the political ingenuity and creativity of community organizations. This account, which blends narrative journalism with legal and historical chronicle, takes us from the beautiful landscapes of Cabañas and Chalatenango to the cold halls of the World Bank in Washington, where the fate of the small Central American nation's water resources was decided. Rather than being an isolated success story, the story told in Defending Water offers many reasons to encourage optimism and conviction in those who will never believe that money is worth more than water, or, in other words, more than life.