A World Without Water review

I’m glad to say that this is the last documentary I am watching at the Earthnotes Documentary festival, one can only watch so many documentaries and I think I watched one more than that number.

But A World Without Water was a good one to end on, it was extremely interesting and not a little scary. More than a quarter of the people in the world do not have access to potable water. It’s difficult to really understand this statistic, until you see how these people are forced to live because of their situation. They suffer from sickness not only from drinking unclean water but also because they are so dirty. It’s heartbreaking to see.

It’s also infuriating to see how, once again, big corporations are making money off the suffering of needy people. Coca Cola builds a factory in India and removes half a million tons of water a day from the underground aquifier, the farmers for 50kms around now have no water to grow crops or even for drinking. So these families become destitute while Coke makes millions.

The World Bank is compelling developing countries to privatise their water supply, arguing that the increased efficiencies will be good for the economy and the people. However, for corporations it’s profit over people every time so wherever the water supply is privatised, the poor are left without water even though there is a water pipe running past their home. The water company does not care that they can’t afford the $200 connection fee (about 9 months income for them). I don’t think I can even afford that connection fee.

We don’t realise that water is already becoming a scarce resource, wars are already being fought over water, people are already dying for lack of water. It’s a massive and very serious problem. Unless the inhabitants of this planet conserve their water, things will get nasty.

If you enjoyed this review, you can read others in the Movie category on Relax with Dax.

A World Without Water is available for viewing online at Google Video.