WaterWired

Maude Barlow's Movie 'Blue Gold: World Water Wars'

I'm starting to sound like a shill for Maude Barlow. The other day I posted about Maude Barlow's new role as UN Senior Adviser on water. Okay, I'm happy for her. So what else is on her agenda?

Colleague Todd Jarvis told me she has a movie out: Blue Gold: World Water Wars. It is based on the book she co-wrote with Tony Clarke, Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water. Barlow and Clarke co-wrote the film, British Actor Malcolm McDowell narrates and Barlow herself appears as a guide throughout the movie.

You can view a trailer here.

I have not seen it yet, but here is a recent review by Sarah Barmak from The Star.

One paragraph in the review caught my attention:

Much of Blue Gold's litany of information may come as a shock. The world collectively pumps 30 billion gallons of groundwater every day – 15 times more water than can safely be replenished by rainfall. As water becomes scarce, companies like Nestlé and Coca-Cola have made aggressive moves to buy local supplies, leading to the situation in many parts of Africa, where rivers are polluted and locals must either pay exorbitant fees for tap water or purchase bottled Dasani. Barlow says the problem is growing in Canada, too. She faults our "myth of abundance" for overuse of the Great Lakes and the destruction of the water table in northern Alberta to mine the tar sands.

The amount of global daily ground water pumpage caught my eye. It's wrong. The number is far too low - fewer than 100,000 acre-feet. Barlow could have made a more dramatic case because the actual amount of daily global ground water pumpage is more like 600 billion gallons per day (rounded). That's based on an estimate of about 800 cubic kilometers per year, which amounts to about 2.2 cubic kilometers per day, which is about 600 billion gallons or around 1.8 million acre-feet. My estimate is based on a number that is almost a decade old [Shah et al. (2000), The global groundwater situation: overview of opportunities and challenges. International Water Management Institute]. I suspect the current number is now higher.

It is possible that the reviewer got the number wrong. I'll give Barlow and Clarke the benefit of the doubt until I see the movie, but I've encountered Barlow errors before. [Note: the comment is made in the movie, but it's Robert Glennon who says it.]

I am looking forward to seeing it.

"Finally, a water film that kicks ass." -- GreenMuze.com, from the film's WWW site

Something You May Have Missed: Nominations Extended for the King Hassan II Great Water Prize

I received this notice the other day. I confess to complete ignorance about the nomination deadline.

 

Boy, I'm glad it was extended. Now I can nominate myself, or perhaps Maude Barlow or T. Boone Pickens.

 

Check out that coat-of-arms. Love that pentagram!

 

The deadline for submitting candidatures to the King Hassan II Great World Water Prize, originally planned for 15 October 2008, has been extended to Friday 14 November 2008.

 

This 3^rd edition of the Prize will be held in Istanbul, in March 2009, on the occasion of the 5^th World Water Forum.

 

The Prize is awarded to an institution, organization, individual or group of individuals in honor of their outstanding achievements in any aspects of water resources such as scientific, economic, technical, environmental, social, institutional, cultural or political.

 

All information on submitting a candidature is available from:

·        The World Water Council website

·        The 5^th World Water Forum website

 

Do not hesitate to contact the Prize secretariat for greater details (Melanie Giard, World Water Council, [email protected] or Colin Herron, 5^th World Water Forum, [email protected])

 

I am assuming "Great' modifies 'Water Prize' and not 'King Hassan II'. But maybe not.

 

Some more information from the WWC website:

 

 The King Hassan II Great World Water Prize is an international award jointly established by the Government of Morocco and the World Water Council, in memory of his Majesty King Hassan II of Morocco's distinguished leadership and encouragement of cooperation and sound management of water resources.

 

It's worth noting that the first World Water Forum was held in Marrakech, Morocco, in 1997. Or not. The major outcome was the revival of the careers of aging 'rockers' Crosby, Stills & Nash.

 

I think Campanastan will bid on the Sixth World Water Forum.

 

"He who prizes little thing is worthy of great things." -- German proverb

Maude Moves Up: UN Senior Water Adviser

Reader Leif Nelson sent me this information. Maude Barlow, Canada's best-known water gadfly, has been named the first UN's first senior  water adviser.  She said she wants to use the role to establish water as a human right and to convince Canada to "change its shameful position" on the issue.

Read all about it here (from CBC); some excerpts are below. The story also has links to additional information about Barlow.

The accompanying picture is from the article and shows Barlow "celebratring" President George W. Bush's 60th birthday in Ottawa.

From the story:

"I also plan to take this opportunity to get the Canadian government to change its shameful position, and to finally join the international community in recognizing water as a human right," said Barlow.

D’Escoto [UN General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann] extolled on Barlow’s ability to “combine humanitarian vision with a practical approach to problem solving” and has expressed support for her crusade, calling water a "human right as basic as the air we breathe."

Barlow holds six honorary doctorates and has written or co-written 16 books. She is also co-founder of the Blue Planet Project, a group that works to protect fresh water from trade and privatization around the world.

The United Nations estimates 42,000 people die every week from diseases related to bad water and poor sanitation.

I am sure my appointment letter is en route. Must have gotten lost in the mail.

"This is my standpoint. And I am just not going to budge from it. It's having a world view that is just in some ways immovable." - Maude Barlow

California's Water: A Primer

Reader Amanda Rice, on the beautiful California Central Coast, sent me this information about the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) publication California's Water: An LAO Primer.

For a moment I thought, "Why is Laos writing a primer on California's water? Is it for the Hmong people who live there?"

From the WWW site:

California’s water delivery system is facing a series of challenges due in part to a combination of increasingly variable weather conditions, legal requirements, and system operation and conveyance constraints. These challenges affect water availability, reliability, and delivery. Recent public and private efforts have sought ways to address these challenges. These measures include proposals to increase water through groundwater storage, surface storage, infrastructure changes, and system operation improvements, among others.

This report (77 pp.) provides, through a “quick reference” document relying heavily on charts to present information, a snapshot of water in California, including:

(1) An Overview of California’s Water Governance
(2) Water Supply, Source, and Delivery
(3) How Do We Finance Water Projects?
(4) What Drives the Cost of Water?
(5) Issues for Legislative Consideration

This looks like a good read - may provide some ideas on how to do, or not to do, certain things. Hey, many good things have come out of California. Consider the following:

Q: What's the best thing to come out of California? A: Interstate 5
Q: What's the second best thing to come out of California? A: Interstate 80 

UN Report: Aid Donors Should Focus on Water - Amen!

John Sauer of Water Advocates sent this article by Fiona Harvey from the Financial Times. You will have to register (free) to read the article online.

Donor nations should focus on providing water and sanitation in developing countries before trying to improve education, health and trade, a United Nations study found.

Installing toilets and ensuring safe water supplies would do more to end poverty and improve health than any other measure, said the UN University.

Without such fundamental services as sanitation and access to clean water, projects to improve the economy or people's wellbeing are likely to fail, said Zafar Adeel, director of the UN University's International Network on Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INEWH).

"Development aid would be much better spent if you tackle the water and sanitation issue first," he said.

The study says donors have failed to focus on water and sanitation, favouring instead projects such as improvements to infrastructure, health and education.

A report published last month by the charities WaterAid and Tearfund found the developed world was giving a smaller proportion of its overall aid to water and sanitation projects.

Furthermore, less than a quarter of the aid intended to give people access to clean water and sanitation was going to the regions where it was most needed.

Water and sanitation are pressing problems: more than 2.6bn people lack access to decent sanitation and about 1bn lack access to clean drinking water.

As a result an estimated 5,000 children die every day in the developing world from preventable infectious conditions such as diarrhoea.

A lack of access to water and sanitation leads to serious health problems, damages economic productivity, and prevents girls from completing their education, as a lack of private toilets means most leave school at puberty in many regions.

As well as imperilling the success of other aid efforts by failing to sort out sanitation, donor countries are missing out on an opportunity to get much more out of their aid, said Mr Adeel. "The return [from directing aid to water and sanitation] is on the order of eight or 10 times the expenditure."

Aid for water and sanitation services also opens new service business opportunities for local entrepreneurs, according to the UN University report.

The report found that mapping where in the world water and sanitation problems are most urgent would be a valuable first step in redirecting aid to focus on these issues.

Download a copy of the report.

Note that it is not only access to toilets that prevents girls from completing their education, but also lack of access to water. In developing regions the burden of getting water most heavily falls on women and girls, so if the girls are helping their mothers get water, they can't go to school. See my post about Amy Hart's film Water First: Living Drop By Drop, and the story of Charles Banda in Malawi. His work attests to the fact that improved water and sanitation can have a remarkable effect on women and girls, including birth rates.

"No matter how far you've gone down the wrong road, turn back." -- Turkish proverb