Wars fought around the world for oil may soon be replaced by those fought for water.
That's the dire prediction of French director Irena Salina's powerful new documentary, Flow, which ponders the 21st century's most important issue -- clean and accessible drinking water.
"There is a comet coming at us, it's called water shortage," says Maude Barlow -- the author of Blue Gold and the national chairperson of the Council of Canadians, Canada's largest public advocacy organization -- in the film.
It's truly a daunting problem considering the United Nations has estimated that it will take $30 billion to provide safe drinking water to the entire planet.
Salina, whose first documentary was 2001's Ghost Bird: The Life and Art of Judith Deim, travelled the globe for five years, filming everything from a blood-and-sewage-drenched river in Bolivia to a stinking Coca Cola plant -- it's described as smelling like a rotting animal carcass -- in India, eventually shut down after two years of local protests.
There's also multi-nationals controlling some water systems in developing countries, often leaving the poor out in the cold, or in the case of Nestle in a Michigan suburb, setting up a bottling plant and distressing the locals with their massive water pumping until the citizens took them to court. (Nestle appealed and is still there.)
"Coke, Pepsi and Nestle are water hunters and they're destroying communities in their wake and they don't care," Barlow says.
There's a lot of alarming statistics presented:
* Estimates that 500,000 to seven million people get sick every year in the U.S. from drinking tap water;
* $31 billion is spent on bottled water despite tests showing problems with about one-third of the brands;
* One out of every 10 children in Bolivia will die before the age of five because of the lack of clean drinking water;
* The methane gas greenhouse effect of reservoirs caused by dams is sometimes 20 times higher than a coal-burning power plant.
And it goes on and on like that for the next 90 minutes.
At times, the numbers and figures are overwhelming, not to mention depressing.
It's when Salina focuses on the personal stories -- and some simple solutions -- that she has a real impact on the viewer.
"The true solution to the water problems is going to be local," one water expert says.
One thing is for sure: after you watch Flow, you'll think about that next glass of water you drink or that next shower or bath you have and not take either of them for granted.
Humans need to be reminded that they themselves are 70% water.
(This film is rated G)
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