A DROP OF LIFE:
A Filmmaker's Journey Inside the World Water Crisis
By Shalini Kantayya
SHIFTING FOCUS
Column by Shalini Kantayya
A DROP OF LIFE:
A Filmmaker's Journey Inside the World Water Crisis
By Shalini Kantayya
My passion for water rights did not begin with an intellectual study, but as all great adventures of my life begin -- with the heart. The journey to make A Drop Of Life began in January 2001. I was in India on a Fulbright Fellowship, making a documentary on political street theater. On a whim, I accepted a friend's request to help him document the largest gathering of people in human history, at the Maha Kumbha Mela. The Maha Kumbha Mela is a religious festival in which people come to bathe in the holy confluence of three rivers at an auspicious time because doing so is believed to wash away sins and bring the soul closer to liberation. I found myself living in a tent at the bank of the Ganga with my crew for the duration of the 40-day festival. In the process, I spent many hours talking with pilgrims, watching prayer rituals, and immersing myself, day after day, in the sacred water. In the course of many coldwater baths, I fell wildly in love with this river.
All ancient civilizations flourished at the banks of life-giving rivers, and India was no exception -- even the word India derives from the name of the River Indus. Water was traditionally revered as a life-giving mother goddess, infused with the power to sustain life and purify the soul, and the practice of jal jaap, of laying out clay cups of water for the thirsty, was widespread. Many indigenous cultures believe that water can't be owned and is instead the common property of all people -- and in India, before British colonization led to water's being administered by the state, communities were responsible for being caretakers of their own talab, the collective source of water.
I was moved by this faith in water as sacred and as a common responsibility for the preservation of all life. And my love for the river inspired me to question the cultural practices of offerings made with paper and plastic. I thought to myself, "We call this river mother and then dump all the junk into it in the name of reverence? Hmmm." I began to read fervently on river systems and the global story of water. And so I attended the Peoples' World Water Forum in New Delhi, the World Social Forum in Mumbai, and the World Water Forum in Mexico City. Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke's riveting 2002 book Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water shook me out of my seat. I found the statistics alarming; between one-half and two-thirds of the world's population, over four billion people, will not have adequate access to clean drinking water by the year 2027.
The more I researched and read about water, the more I became convinced of the veracity of World Bank Vice President Ismail Serageldin's prediction that "If the wars of the twentieth century were fought over oil, the wars of the next century will be fought over water." Water scarcity is already a reality for one billion world citizens. And in a post-information, post-iPhone, post-reality television world, every time a child dies because of water-related illness, we have failed as a world community to manage our most vital shared human right. Less than one percent of the world's water is fresh and drinkable. And individuals and corporations are over-consuming at such a rate that every species on the planet is in danger. And as demand rapidly exceeds supply, corporations are vying to buy water resources and sell them, like any other commodity, to the highest bidder.
And we can no longer draw borders on the crisis and relegate the problem to sub-Saharan Africa or the interior villages of India. In the U.S. we have seen the dramatic effects of the water crisis throughout the South and the Midwest, accompanied by a nationwide decrease in the water levels of many rivers and lakes. In Atlanta as of early 2008 there are only an estimated three months of clean drinking water left, and a mandatory outdoor watering ban makes it illegal to water lawns and wash cars.* In addition, Arizona is suffering a continuing drought that over the years has hit its agricultural industry with an estimated 2.8 billion dollars in overall economic losses.*
As I became aware of the mounting global water crisis, I realized that it represented a clash of cultures -- between a culture that values water as a shared sacred resource and a corporate culture that regards water as a commodity to be bought and sold. According to the World Bank and the United Nations, water is a human need and not a human right. This distinction clarifies that water can be sold for money, while no one can sell a human right.1 After living many years between India and America, I wondered how water conflicts in the future will affect the already vast disparities between the "First World" and "Third World."
I created A Drop Of Life in order to convey the widening life-threatening divide between people who can afford this vital resource and those who cannot. As an artist, I want to harness the viral energy of youth culture and the popular form of dramatic fiction to inspire new audiences to awareness about water. I wanted to make a film that would reach beyond the traditional environmental movement and social issue documentary audiences. I wanted to create a tool to engage my peers, mostly urban kids of color, to transform water culture.
The water meter in A Drop Of Life was originally conceived to depict a frightening future we are headed towards unless we change our ways. But then I learned, in an interview with Maude Barlow, that this frightening future, a world in which water is reserved for only those who can afford it, exists today. In the case of the Orange Farm township in South Africa, a development scheme was implemented earlier this decade that offered each family 6,000 liters per month of free water, after which point they would have to pre-pay for water. 6,000 liters split by an average 10-person family by 30 days is about 20 liters per day. The World Health Organization claims that an individual human being needs 25 liters of water per day to meet basic human needs and another 100 liters per day to be healthy. As a result of the installation of the pre-paid water meter, residents of the township were forced to drink water from an unclean source. Over 5,000 people died of cholera died because of the pre-paid water meter. And irresponsible development policies like the pre-paid water meter is deepening the life threatening divide between rich and poor.
The science-fiction water meters I had imagined already exist today in over 10 countries, including South Africa, Brazil, Nigeria, the Philippines, Sudan, and the United States. Since the making of A Drop Of Life, pre-paid water meters have been introduced in India. This "coincidence" has affirmed my belief that this film has the power to move, inspire, and mobilize people to act on this critical issue.
A Drop Of Life emerged from a desire to bring attention to this crisis on which all life depends, and a belief that mass media can create the spark that ignites social change. African Water Network, a water advocacy organization that works with communities targeted by pre-paid water-meter programs, has screened the film in over 40 villages across Africa, using it as a tool to inspire dialogue about local water issues.
We spend a billion dollars a year on bottled water. What if we put that money into our public systems? In partnership with 7th Empire Media, the A Drop Of Life educational tour will raise awareness through screenings and workshops that challenge students to imagine themselves in new situations and develop critical thinking skills around this issue. Students are encouraged to take Corporate Accountability International's Think Outside the Bottle Pledge, a campaign to end bottled water-drinking in the U.S. The Student Water Action Toolkit, also developed by CAI, is being distributed on campuses across the country, providing students with information for ongoing action.
I am currently launching the short version of A Drop of Life in order to develop a feature-length science fiction drama on the subject of the world water crisis. The distribution process will serve as a "calling card" for the long-form project, which will tap all the tools and viral energy of today's youth culture to engage a new generation in a large-scale environmental movement. A feature-length release would be accompanied by a musical soundtrack, video games, mobile phone content, and a vast online presence, as well as a companion social impact plan designed to create a global culture of respect for water as a universal human right and shared collective responsibility.
In the decade that I've become politicized around water rights, I've realized that solutions already exist. The gap between the end of the world and the life saving action we need to take is within our reach. It means making small changes in our everyday lives. We can transform cultural practice. We can stop buying bottled water. We can carry canteens and reclaim our role as stewards of water. We can use only what we need. We can pressure our government representatives to keep water in the commons and advocate for water subsidies for poor people. We can share this vital resource with every species on the planet for generations to come. To attempt any less, to tell ourselves that the challenges are too insurmountable, or that ultimately water is "someone else's problem," is simply unthinkable. A Drop of Life is one step towards sparking the conversations that create vital social change.
Sources:
1Barlow, Maude, and Clarke, Tony. Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water (New York: The New Press, 2002).
* ABC News, Oct. 15, 2007
*The Arizona Republic, Nov. 27, 2006
SHIFTING FOCUS
Column by Shalini Kantayya
Nineteen and wide-eyed, I remember the low deep throated-chant of 800 Tibetan monks praying. I was in the South Indian village of Bylakuppe, one of the thirteen villages that India had gifted the Tibetan refugees. Before I knew aperture or iris, I knew there were experiences that I could not express in words. That was the moment I fell in love with images, and began to put imaginary picture frames on everything I saw. I discovered vision in a new way.
My love for the image was just that -- impulsive, passionate, all-encompassing, and without reason. But my love for visual storytelling also became integrated with my love for human rights. I have always been inspired by stories of ordinary people who overcome seemingly insurmountable hardships. As the media become increasingly corporate-controlled, I believe that telling these stories is absolutely critical. Frustrated with consolidation of power in six media conglomerates, I founded 7th Empire Media, with the mission of bringing a voice to the unheard through media.
Over the last ten years, my adventure as an independent filmmaker, educator, and activist has given me the opportunity travel the world in pursuit of a story. On my sojourn, I have had the privilege of meeting many young people blazing trails and creating new ways to live in the world. From the women's handicraft cooperatives in India to the greenest building in the northeastern United States, Shifting Focus will share stories of ordinary people making a difference and bringing us hope for the future...
If the stomach is the way to the heart, then you'll fall instantly in love with chef, food justice activist, and author Bryant Terry. Bryant is Founding Director of B-Healthy (Building Healthy Eating and Lifestyles to Help Youth). And if you want his extra fabulous Valentine's Day menu, you'll have buy his latest book, Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen (co-authored with Anna Lappe; Tarcher, 2006).
What is Grub?
1. Grub is healthy, local, sustainable food for all.
2. Grub is food that supports community, justice, and sustainability.
3. Grub should be universal.
In Grub, you have created some mouthwatering menus. What is the power of food in our daily lives?
I would argue that food is one of the most important things in our daily lives. Everyone eats.
What moved you to become a food justice activist? What is the relationship between food and justice?
I started learning about food systems and sustainable agriculture in my grandparents' backyard gardens in Memphis when I was a toddler. When I was getting my MA in History at NYU I learned about the "Free Breakfast for Children" program started in 1968 by the Black Panther Party. Within one year the program spread across the country, and they were feeding over 10,000 African American youth each morning. Other groups working to create social change replicated the model.
When I finished graduate school, I saw a crisis in low-income communities that arose from lack of access to grub. I was troubled that most of the organizations did not have programs that addressed food justice issues, given that many of the youth were in some way affected by lack of access to grub.
So I started to teach myself more about the effects of corporate control of food and the globalization of agriculture and became radical in my desire to create positive change in our food system. Over the past five years, I have committed myself to feeding people; illuminating the connections between poverty, malnutrition, and institutional racism; and working to create a more just and sustainable food system for everyone.
What transformations have you witnessed in the youth you work with?
The most exciting thing about working with young people in b-healthy is seeing how quickly they become invested in shifting their relationship with food once they learn what is at stake.
What kinds of challenges have you faced with your work, and how did you overcome them?
One of the biggest challenges in my work is changing people's perceptions about the real and imagined higher costs of eating more healthfully. When people argue that it's too expensive to eat more healthfully, my tongue-in-cheek response is "you pay now, or you pay later." Yes, it is true that eating healthfully can be more expensive, but it's not about doing an item-by-item comparison. We must consider the bigger picture.
It is important that people realize that industrial food is artificially cheap. Most people don't know about the hidden costs of industrial food. When we think about what we are paying out of our pockets in taxes to support industrial agriculture, when we think about the damage being done to our environment by industrial farming and the cost to clean it up, when we think about the emotional and monetary costs of having sick loved ones, that extra 30 cents per pound for tomatoes that you buy at the farmers' market does not seem that expensive anymore.
So in Grub, we educate readers about additional sources for getting healthy food (like farmers' markets, food co-ops, community-supported agriculture). When we support these sources, not only do we get less expensive healthy food, we also build community, support local economies, and often connect directly with the individuals growing our food.
What about your work gives you hope for the future?
Witnessing young people working around food and farming issues gives me a lot of hope that we can truly build a more just and sustainable food system. From the civil rights movement in the US to the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, youth have been instrumental in creating positive change throughout the 20th century. I firmly believe that young people will be in the forefront of one of the most hopeful movements of the 21st century -- food justice.
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Learn more about Bryant's work at www.eatgrub.org.
Brooklyn-based Shalini Kantayya, filmmaker, educator, and activist, uses film/video as a tool to educate, inspire, and empower audiences. Learn more about her work at www.adropoflife.tv and 7thempiremedia.com.
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