Two Very Good Water Movies

There are a number of "water movies" around these days. I'll comment on two recent ones that left strong impressions on me.

Waterbuster, a film by Hidatsa/Mandan filmmaker J. Carlos Peinado and Daphne Ross, tells the story of the disuption of the lives of native peoples by the construction of the Garrison Dam on the Missouri River by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The dam submerged fertile land, destroying a self-sufficient community and displacing Peinado's family and the people of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.

Waterbuster recounts Peinado's journey to his ancestral North Dakota homeland from his home on a sailboat in California to reconnect with his family. Through interviews he discovers the proud and resilient nature of his tribe, their contributions to American culture and history, and their deep attachment to the harsh North Dakota prairie. It's a moving story of a proud people and Peinado's confrontation with his identity.

Paul VanDevelder, a writer (Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes, and the Trial that Forged a Nation) who collaborated with Peinado on Waterbuster, remarked to me that after viewing the film, one person asked him "Where did you find all those articulate Indians?"

Waterbuster premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2006. By all means see it.

Amy Hart produced Water First: Living Drop by Drop. It tells two stories: the first is about the remarkable Charles Banda, a preacher and retired fireman who founded the Freshwater Project in Malawi; and the second concerns the volatile issue of water privatization in South Africa.

Banda's organization has drilled 800 wells in 10 years, bringing potable water to about one million people. Hart notes he has never received a dime from the World Bank.

What I like about the first part of Hart's film is the correlation she makes between lack of access to potable water and a number of things, especially the school drop-out rate for girls. Girls often drop out because they are too busy helping mother gather water. Girls who go to school average 2-3 children, whereas those who don't go to school have 10-15 children. When latrines are installed and girls have privacy, the drop-out rate goes from 40% to 6%. As Hart so correctly states, in developing countries water is still very much a problem for women. Men will sit around all day bragging about how many goats they have while the women and girls bust their butts collecting water.

The second part of her film deals with the issue of prepaid water meters in South Africa and privatization of water utilities. This is obviously a contentious issue, and broaches issues involving ethics, lifeline rates, and the right to water.

People are supposed to get 6000 liters of free water per month, then rates kick in after that. In Soweto Township, Johannesburg Water is installing prepaid meters, so that you must pay first before you can exceed your 6000 liter allotment. No one is supposed to have service cut off, but in 2003, the film alleges that 1,500,000 people had their water service discontinued.

Hart made some good points in this portion of the film. And lest you think that the interview of Helgard Muller, a white Afrikaner who is the Manager of Water Services for the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry regarding the prepaid water meter issue, implies that this is an example of continuing white oppression, let me dispel that. His boss, the Minister of DWAF, is a black African woman, Ms. L.B. Hendricks.

I was at the Third World Water Forum at Kyoto in 2003 and heard some community leaders talk about this problem. As one black African said: "When the whites ran the country, I had free water. Now that my people are in charge, they turn off my water because I cannot pay!"

I do not necessarily oppose privatization of water but there are so many bad examples (Cochabamba, Bolivia, and Atlanta, Georgia, come to mind) that it is sometimes hard to support the concept. But I do not believe that water should be given away absolutely free. If you don't charge something for water or any other resource, people will waste it; unfortunately, that's human nature. That said, we do need to ensure that those who cannot pay with money have access to water and be allowed to pay in other ways.

"Don't insult the crocodile until you've crossed the river." -- Sudanese proverb

Comments

[Alicia]

For those of you interested on the effects of privatization on ordinary individual, especially when MNCs privatize essential infrastructure such as water, electricty, railways and health care, you should check out the new documentary “The Big Sell-Out.”

This documentary challenges current economic orthodoxy in contending that the dogmatic claims of the international business establishment for neo-liberal development policies are not supported by modern economic science. More importantly, it dramatically demonstrates how the implementation of these policies is having disastrous consequences for millions of ordinary people around the globe.

While national and international economic discourse is fixated on increasing efficiency and economic growth, The Big Sellout reminds us that there are faces behind the statistics. It raises serious questions about the neo-liberal credo that government best serves the public interest by becoming a servant to corporate interests. But brave individuals, like those showcased in this important new film, are standing up and demanding an alternative to the prevailing neo-liberal model, a model that the film shows to be as hollow as it is unsustainable.

In particular to Latin America, the films documents how citizens in Cochabamba, Bolivia have organized enormous protests in 2000, following the decision by the Bolivian government to sell the public water company to a private corporation, which would have made water cost-prohibitive to much of the population. The Big Sellout shows how ordinary people are fighting the neo-liberal commodification of basic public goods.

If you are interested in obtaining a copy of this film, it is available from CA Newsreel at www.newsreel.org