Flow

Water has no taste, no color, no odor; it cannot be defined.Not necessary to life, but rather life itself. It fills us with a gratification that exceeds the delight of the senses.”This is a famous quote said by Antoine Saint-Exuperry. “Flow for the love of water” is an important documentary that explains how water is being used and what the adverse affects are. The documentary begins with mentioning the importance of water and then talks about the destruction caused by contaminated water.

The percentage of water on earth is 71% and part of that percentage is consumed by agriculture, industries and humans. However, our lives are threatened due to contaminated water. And this is caused by pollution, privatization and lack of care. Even though the purpose of privatization is providing people with potable water and sewage in many countries like El Alto(Bolivia) 208,000 people have been deprived from potable water service. In Bolivia, 1 in every 10 children mostly below the age five dies because of contaminated water. Those people are the victims of privatizations.( http://rise2peace.blogspot.com/2009/03/flow-film-about-water.html )

In Bomminan Padu in India, 70,000 innocent people died due to contaminated water. Ashok Gadgil is a senior staff scientist who claims that almost everyone in India has had an experience with the effects of contaminated water. He himself lost five of his cousins due to diseases caused by contaminated water. Contaminated water may contain pathogens, bacteria, viruses and many more which is very bad for the human body. It contains herbicides and pesticides like Atrazine which caused male frogs to become female. However, Ashok came up with an impressive idea where he could used UV to produce distilled water and hopefully many more productive solutions would be formed.

Our world has become a world of materialistic possessions, a world where money and power are more important than health. The greediness of those heartless people is leading us towards extinction. Companies like Nestle, Thames, Vivendi, Suez, Coca Cola and Pepsi were also mentioned in the documentary. Businesses, privatizations and corporate greed all play a part in this ugly process and unfortunately even we do, by using water in an unregulated amount. Definitely, we can’t control the amount of water we drink but we certainly can control the rate of usage. (http://www.socialistaction.org/caldwell-smith28.htm )

Dams are said to be used for the conservation of water while in fact there are many other ways of conserving water in a better, unharmful, and inexpensive way. In order to build dams people would have to move from their home leaving their farm which is their only way of getting food. Promises were made to those people but the authorities didn’t keep their word. The Katse dam that was built in Lesotho displaced 17,000 people and the 3 Georges Dam in China displaced 1.3 million people and there are many more. The construction of those dams should be stopped because it is the main cause of people being homeless, reduction in food production which ultimately would cause famine.(http://documentaries.about.com/od/revie2/fr/flow.htm )

Water is being used as a commodity. The richer you are the better quality you would get and the poor are the ones who suffer. Nature has been used badly and now it is getting its revenge. How long would this last? How much will Nature be able to afford? “We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.”So People should be aware of those problems and be more responsible. Solutions must be found and the problem must be solved before it’s too late.

References:

1 ) http://rise2peace.blogspot.com/2009/03/flow-film-about-water.html

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

3 ) http://www.socialistaction.org/caldwell-smith28.htm