Movie review: Blue Gold: World Water Wars (2008)

Credit: Hypergurl on Flickr

JT and I had a chance to see the movie “Blue Gold: World Water Wars” thanks to an invite by the VIFF office. The film actually premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Blue Gold is a documentary based on the work of Maude Barlow (National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians) and Tony Clarke, Director of the Polaris Institute. From the film’s website:

In every corner of the globe, we are polluting, diverting, pumping, and wasting our limited supply of fresh water at an expediential level as population and technology grows. The rampant overdevelopment of agriculture, housing and industry increase the demands for fresh water well beyond the finite supply, resulting in the desertification of the earth.

Corporate giants force developing countries to privatize their water supply for profit. Wall Street investors target desalination and mass bulk water export schemes. Corrupt governments use water for economic and political gain. Military control of water emerges and a new geo-political map and power structure forms, setting the stage for world water wars.

We follow numerous worldwide examples of people fighting for their basic right to water, from court cases to violent revolutions to U.N. conventions to revised constitutions to local protests at grade schools. As Maude Barlow proclaims, “This is our revolution, this is our war”. A line is crossed as water becomes a commodity. Will we survive?
[Blue Gold: World Water Wars]

The documentary, directed by Jim Bozzo, is very good, and I would recommend it for the general public, as it won an Environmental Film of the Year 2008 Award. Of course, for academics like me (who do research on water), nothing that was said in the film was new. I am well aware of the various debates around privatization, treating water both as a political resource and as a commodity and the discussion on tap water vs. bottled water consumption. I was actually kind of surprised that very little discussion was offered on water as a common pool resource and the problems created by having many users sharing access to dwindling supplies. But the truth is, the social issues surrounding water consumption and pollution are such vast topics, that no documentary can touch on everything.

While the topic of water quality was discussed, neither the documentary narrators nor the interviewees really got into deep discussions of issues of water quality and wastewater management. This was kind of disappointing, as any discussions of the hydrological cycle SHOULD include a mass balance of water AND wastewater. It’s clear that the focus of the film was pretty much the privatization debate and the grassroots battles against corporate acquisition of water.

At the end of the movie, there is some (albeit not extensive) coverage of very important issues: the right to water and the concept of virtual water. While very little support has been given worlwide to a universal right to water, I would think that the recent appointment of Ms. Barlow as Senior Water Advisor to the President of the 63rd U.N. General Assembly may actually increase the visibility of the issue of a right to water.

For a layperson audience, this is a very good film to watch, although I also would recommend additional reading. I would be remiss if I didn’t recommend my own writing on wastewater policy, water governance and the proposed banning of bottled water in Vancouver.

Here is the trailer. Blue Gold: World Water Wars is showing at the Vancity Theatre (1181 Seymour) December 12-18 in the following schedules: Fri 7:00 pm, Sat 9:00 pm, Sun 7:00 pm, Mon 9:00 pm, Tues 7:00 pm, Weds 9:00 pm, Thurs 7:00 pm

Check it out before Thursday Dec 18th, I’d recommend to watch the double feature (e.g. Blue Gold and Flow).

Related posts:

1. Projecting Change Film Festival – April 2-5, 2009
2. World Water Day and “The Global Water Crisis” event by WaterDrop
3. Water stress: Beyond water availability
4. Happy Belated World Water Day 2008
5. Movie review – Wedding Wars