FLOW for love of water

The documentary "Flow, for love of water" (2008) is a film that alerts its viewers about the scarity, pollution, and price of water to the poor. Poor; meaning all people who can't have easy access to purified water. The film concentrates on three regions: USA, India, and South Africa. It involves water companies like: Vivendi, Thames water, and Suez.

The world is suffering from lack of access to clean water. What will the world be, if water runs out? Water makes up 70% of the Earth. If this 70% runs out, Earth won't be what it is, today. There would simply be no life. The Water bound diseases have caused the death of over 2 million children, under the age of 5, annually.

Huge multinational water companies like Suez enjoy privatization which only benefits them and their shareholders. Poor people cannot afford privatized water. Those multinational companies enjoy political plans of taking water from poor countries and re-selling it to the citizens of the same country at 10 times more expensive, by simply adding self brand names to the bottles of water sold. Those issues, raised above, are the issues that are presented in the documentary.

In the USA, people get sick because of drinking from tap water. This is evident through the annual deaths which range from 500 thousand to 7 million people. The overall water, in the US is contaminated, containing viruses, bugs, pathogens, etc. Those viruses come in the body through the showers. Once a person goes to the bathroom, the viruses are excreted, as they move into the sewage, then to the seas. Poor people drink from the seas and the rivers, where the viruses now live. This is how drinking from the seas increases the mortality rate of poor humans with no purified water.

In India, there is a sacred river that the Indians believe in, in religious occasions called the ganges. The huge multinational companies, dammed the sacred river, and have been selling it's water to the citizens of the same country (India) for high prices.

In South Africa, Suez owns a place in one of the poor regions that supposedly runs a clean, purified water system. However, the documentary shows how Suez water is always dark in color, and how it always has worms. Privatized companies follow the "self interest theory", whereas they would only care about accomplishing their own interests, and simply ignore other people's concerns. Such companies only care about monetary terms. They need to be "tight handed" when it comes to expenses, to satisfy their shareholders. So, they don't provide clear water to poor regions. Why is this? Well, purifying requires money, which decreases their overall profit.

There are many solutions that are interdependent upon one another, if a solution to this world crisis is to be looked at. I personally recommend all solutions because different countries differ from one another. The ultra violet lamp can be used to remove the viruses found in water, whereas rivers and seas can be purified. The tablets, also mentioned in the documentary, can be brought to kill the germs, as well. Poor people can be hired into huge industries in order to educate them, reduce unemployment, and pay them money to afford their life expenses. But before doing all of this, dangerous chemicals like perchlorate are to be banned from the market.

The poor countries need to call upon the UN, countries in order to offer central committees in their poor areas, That would, by foreign aid, provide the ultraviolet lamps, tablets, training, and a proper water infrastructure. Not only this, but they can also go into Research and Development (R&D) to come up with new brand technologies that would easily purify contaminated water. This way, access to water would be less trouble, to those poor regions, and people would begin to care about our future.

1)Flow; for love of water.

2)http://documentaries.about.com/od/revie2/fr/flow.htm