The Weekender – Water

“The Weekender” is our new feature where every weekend we hope to highlight a short film, movie or documentary pertaining to Latin American and the Caribbean.  
 
March 22nd is the U.N.-sponsored World Water Day, which helps to examine the importance of water in our daily lives and the challenges communities face globally in order to gain access to such a vital substance.  This year’s theme focuses on the “closely linked an interdependent” relation between water and energy including how they affect economic development and wealth worldwide.

The 2009 documentary Water Which Makes Us Alive looks at how residents of the Peruvian community of Andamarca manage the limited supplies of water that are in their area.  Their system of self-regulation aims to ensure that they can all have a fair access to water for all and helps in the survival of the Andamarca area. 

According to a synopsis of the documentary from Culture Unplugged Studios, “This spiritual, social and political system of water management is an example for managing water resources for irrigation in a participatory, democratic way that respects the ecosystem…Without the sense of unity that underlies this collective management, the inhabitants would break their roots and the community would be transformed into a dead place.

Unfortunately Water Which Makes Us Alive cannot be embedded though we have included a link to the very insightful and interesting film.  This link is available under the page break as well as a short embedded video on an innovative billboard in Peru that converts air into potable water. 

Today’s Video: High and dry

There are several items in the news that we plan on discussing today including some related to U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Latin America. Before doing so, however, we would like to point out that today is World Water Day.

According to British risk consultants Maplecroft, most countries in the Middle East and North Africa have very insecure water supplies and this could lead to increased political strife. Regarding Latin America, a majority of countries in Central and South America face a "medium" water security risk. Some of these states have faced mixed results after the privatization of publicly-owned water companies though the main challenge according to IPS news is "expanding coverage of high-quality water services".

In the Americas, Mexico is one of the few "high" risk countries regarding water supply according to the Maplecroft study. Water shortages have hurt the metropolis of Mexico City though other parts of Mexico are also affected by a lack of safe water resources. This (along with "clever advertising campaigns by multinational corporations" and government inaction) has led Mexico to become the world's top consumer of bottled water.

The following video via YouTube user nanasurbanas looks at the many difficulties faced by the indigenous Huichol community due to the scarcity of potable water. It is a very fitting video to feature on World Water Day:

Online Sources - Maplecroft, AHN, IPS, Al Jazeera English, McClatchy
Video Source - nanasurbanas via YouTube

World Water Day – Inequality in the Americas

Today is World Water Day and this year’s theme examines the scarcity of water in many areas of the world. Though that problem is especially pronounced in the Middle East and Africa, Latin America’s main problem revolves around uneven water distribution. The U.N. notes that impoverished households in underdeveloped countries tend to spend more of their income in potable water than those living in advanced industrialized nations. In several countries, the problem is worse:

- Only half of the population of urban areas of Bolivia has “reliable" access to water.

- A lack of a viable water infrastructure has contributed to Haiti’s high infant mortality rate.

- Though Mexico hosted the Fourth World Water Forum last year, the Rio Grande is one of the world’s “Top Ten Rivers at Risk” and northern Mexico could face severe droughts due to less rainfall.

- Chilean farmers in the town of Caimanes worry that a dam being built by one of the country’s largest copper mines will contaminate the town’s water supply and impede irrigation.

So what can be done in order to solve these problems? One solution may be to raise awareness in developed countries such as The Tap Project's campaign for New York City restaurant patrons to donate $1 for the usually free glass of tap water. Another plan of action may be to heed to the plan created by Latin American representatives to the Fourth World Water Forum including increased government participation and the creation of local community projects.

Links- United Nations, The Latin Americanist, Zee News, The Hindu, Washington Square News, Reuters AlertNet

Image- UNICEF (Children gathering around a well in a Brazilian favela)