Flow: For Love Of Water

Year: 2008

Grade: B-

Country: USA

Director: Salina

Review

like food inc. this is another documentary that spells doom and gloom about a fundamental element of our being: water. it’s fairly well done, but not as good as food inc. and certainly not as good as the corporation. as usual, i had some problems with what i saw as some overreaction, but overall i am sympathetic to the cause. the same can be said about another recent documentary: I.O.U.S.A. which i felt blew the economic debt of the u.s. a bit out of proportion. in general, i think people want to feel closer to death so they come up with doomsday scenarios in religion or science or whatever.

a lot of these documentaries come up with some pretty bogus figures. this one states that the u.n. estimates all the world could have clean, healthy water if we only invested $30 billion, that’s $70 billion less than the world spent on bottled water last year. frankly i don’t believe that figure for a second. these sorts of projects invariably cost much more than originally imagined. $30 billion probably wouldn’t even be enough to effectively address the issues in america, at least according to their assessment of our water system.

i’ve said for a long time that i don’t feel the world has that much of a problem with the amount of water, it’s just a matter of capturing and cleaning all the water that we already have. so, ultimately, when we have to turn to desalination on a larger basis, it’s going to be an energy issue; once again.

speaking of “once again,” how many documentaries like this need to come out before people realize how inherently evil corporations are? they are far too powerful in our legal and political system and they are at the root of so many of our biggest problems. whether it’s france-based suez or u.s.-based nestle or swiss-based syngenta, these companies care only about profit, it is their nature. just as energy problems could be greatly addressed by a single solar panel on the roof of every house, a single cistern in every backyard would go a long way towards fixing our water problems.