For those concerned about “boil warnings” in Athens County, toxic sludge and rust-colored streams, the “Let’s Talk About Water” film event at the Athena Cinema provided some answers and even possible solutions.  At the least, the Cinematheque series generated curiosity and awareness about our local watersheds. This series was possible with the help of guest curator Linda Lilienfeld.

Working as a picture and film researcher for the last 35 years, Lilienfeld has lent her expertise to PBS documentaries, feature films like Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors, museum exhibits and books.

letstalkaboutwater.com

The Brooklyn native’s love affair with water issues began in 1992 when she worked on a museum exhibit about global warming. She was alarmed that despite the subject’s gravity, people didn’t seem to show concern. The problem, she realized, was not apathy but confusion because audiences simply could not understand the material.

To make global warming accessible to non-scientists, Lilienfeld’s initiated the Watershed Media Project, which she envisioned as a four-part film series on watersheds. It was similar to other projects she had worked on, such as an eight-part series on the brain.  “Water was a great entry point into this big subject of global warming because it knit everything together like soil science, atmospheric science and hydrology. You could also look at it from a very personal perspective by putting it in a watershed context. A watershed is a physical boundary where you have upstream and downstream, and everybody lives downstream of someone,”  Lilienfeld said.

She decided to apply for a $6 million grant from the National Science Foundation to fund the series, and brought together a team of academics, scientists and producers. In spite of working on the project for 10 years and applying for the grant twice, Lilienfeld was unable to secure funding. “Bush was president at the time and people were overwhelmed about dealing with the issue of watersheds because it challenged local, state and federal politics,” she said.

The project disbanded, but Lilienfeld refused to give up her efforts to bridge the gap between scientists and the lay audiences they needed to reach. By 2002, she collected over 300 films on water issues and developed connections with the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc (CUAHSI). Working with Rick Hooper, CUAHSI’s executive director, Lilienfeld developed three short films about water, which were eventually shown at the World Water Forum in Mexico as part of the International Water and Film Event. The event, which included panels of people dealing with water problems around the world, advocated adding a new article to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Currently, the United Nations does not recognize the right to access clean and potable water as a fundamental human right.

Last year, Lilienfeld decided to replicate the International Water and Film Event at the local level by coupling internationally and locally produced films with panels of local experts. In Athens, she worked with Ruth Bradley, manager of the Athena Cinema, to put together the program centered on activism. Lilienfeld provided educational documentaries like Flow, while Bradley augmented the program with avant-garde films like 13 Lakes. The program also included regional films about the impacts of mining in Appalachian communities and the Sunday Creek Watershed.

For Lilienfeld, films that marry art and science to create a visually appealing product can “have a great impact on people’s lives and policy decisions.” These films and other media play an important role in activism, especially if they mine information produced at scientific conferences, Lilienfeld said. Scientists sometime couple their data with photography and generate beautiful images from the data which the general public never sees. Media makers can use these images and data to reach out to diverse audiences, she said.

For the closing panel discussion, which also touched on media outreach and activism, Lilienfeld included academics from environmental science, geography and journalism, EPA representatives, politicians and public health workers. While the conversation ranged from the best use of resources to holding local politicians accountable, panelists and audience members agreed that using media to educate youth is key to solving environmental crises. Darwin Mendoza, an audiovisual artist, noted that media makers must pay attention to language and distribution. “Younger people use a completely different language,” he said and they must be reached through new channels of distribution such as videos designed for cell phones and Youtube. Ultimately, media must avoid the approach taken by the television program series Race to Save the Planet, Lilienfeld said. “Audiences referred to the show as the ‘Oh God, oh well’ show because they felt that problems were so large to take on that the only thing they could do was turn off the TV.”

Reporting like Barnaby’s is the reason why I started this blog.   Often conflicts that are really rooted in disagreements about how to use water resources are represented as something else.  The Israel-Palestine conflict, for example, is often depicted as a religious war, while the internal conflict between Balochis and the Pakistani government is portrayed as ethnic strife.   While these elements do exist in the conflict they are not the root cause.  Palestinians have rejected peace accords because they didn’t change the balance of power:  Israel still had total control of all the water resources.  No nation would agree to letting another nation control its entire water supply.

The building of the Narmada Dam has led to internal conflict in India

Scientists were already monitoring water quality before by taking samples from various sites, analyzing them and producing water quality reports. So what are the benefits?

With smart sensors that continuously provide updated information, they can quickly monitor changes in bacteria, toxins, tides, etc. and respond quickly. A system of smart sensors, then, can alert the EPA to a leak or other catastrophe immediately and allow them to contain the problem, or at least try to minimize its impact.

It would be great if like thermostats, every home in the U.S. had smart sensors, to monitor not only daily water use but also quality. When I get a water bill at the end of the month, I rarely notice how much water I actually used, unless my bill is higher than average (like when my toilet was leaking!). Seeing daily usage in terms of actual cubic feet of water used and the cost in dollars would, I’m sure, help the average consumer become more water conscious.

Arran, Ireland (from Wikimedia Commons)

The prank (or maybe it was the contaminated water!)  inspired so much fear in the heart of Andrew Liveris, Dow’s CEO, that he ordered the entire building vacated in anticipation of the delivery. A better reaction would have been to start taking responsbility for the accident and clean-up the mess.

U.S.-Mexico Border. From displacedfilms.com

Nations that have been building fences on their borders to keep out immigrants, have been framing it as an economic or an immigration issue, but not as a national security issue.  I think it is no coincidence that India, Israel and the U.S. all started building fences in the early 2000′s.  The nations did so in anticipation of a large wave of forced migration related to climate change.

In the case of the US-Mexico border, Jerneck writes that water shortages are a serious problem in Mexico and that climate change, which will exacerbate droughts and other environmental problems, will cause increased migration. In 2006, Bush approved the construction of a 700 mile high security fence along the US-Mexico border.  Some critics feel that it backfires in that it prevents migrants from returning and keeps them in the U.S. longer.  It also encourages people to bring their entire families.  The Wall, a documentary film, looks at the impact of building the fence.

Our very own Ohio Rep. John A. Boehner voted yes on building the fence.   I wonder whose interests he was representing.

Awarded the "alternative nobel" prize in 2005

Maude Barlow:  Rabble rouser, prolific author, and co-founder of The Blue Planet Project which promotes water as a human right.   She is known as the “Ralph Nader of Canada” and attends every single WTO demonstration around the world (or so I read). Maude has written 16 books and the one that I read is, Blue Gold:  The Battle Against Corporate Theft of the World’s Water.

Awarded the "Alternative Nobel Prize" in 1993

Vandana Shiva:  Progressive scientist, ecofeminist, author and founder of Navdanya, a movement promoting diversity and use of native seeds.  She was active in the Chipko movement during the 1970s.  Some years ago, she began raising awareness of how Coca Cola is depleting and polluting water resources in India.   A neo-liberal lobbyist gave Shiva the “Bullshit Award” so we know that she is doing something right!  Shiva wrote Water Wars, which takes a holistic look at water conflicts.

Predictably, the Israeli government is denying the findings, and an American group, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America is scouring the report to find falsehoods.  So far, they claim to have found one, in which Amnesty reported that the town of Beit Ula was not connected to the water network.  As evidence they cited a report from a Palestinian NGO released in 2009, which said the town is connected to the network.   So while Amnesty did get the fact wrong, it doesn’t change the reality that most Palestinians living in Beit Ula cannot get water from the network because the infrastructure is old and deteriorated.  For them, it might as well not be connected.  Most residents get their water from cisterns that were systematically destroyed by the Israeli army last year.  CAMERA conveniently forgot to mention that.

- how water issues impact women differently.  A lot of researchers, however, are producing fantastic resources on gender and water.

- structural racism and climate change.

Also, amidst the doom and gloom, I’ve come across little that discusses successful resolutions of water conflicts, even though water conflicts have occurred since ancient history and many have been resolved through water-sharing agreements, changing water use practices, etc. 

Somewhat bougie but pretty...From keesta.com

Finally, very few articles mention or challenge the deep-seated assumptions that we collectively hold about water use.  For example, our American preference for having clean and clear water in toilets, which is often better than the drinking water in most developing countries.   It is this assumption, along with economics that is preventing a massive shift to using gray water for non-drinking water uses.

ALASKA: Over the last 50 or so years,  more than 10,000 of Alaska’s lakes have shrunk or dried up.

Satellite images that show drying in some of Alaska's lakes over a 20 year period. Black areas are water; the gray areas are land and vegetation. The image on the left was taken on July 21, 1985; the image on the right shows lake extent on July 8, 2005. The lakes that shrunk are in white boxes. From D. Verbyla, copyright Canadian Space Agency

Shallow lake wetlands, which are home to moose, muskrats, waterfowl and beavers occupy nearly half of Alaska. Taken by T. O'Dea

KENYA:  Nearly half of Lake Nakuru has dried up.  It used to be 2.6 meters deep; now it is 1.4 meters.

ARAL SEA:  The eastern basin of the South Aral sea dried out completely this year.

By Jojo Cence

UNITED STATES, NEVADA and ARIZONA:  Lake Mead, the country’s largest reservoir might be gone by 2021.

The lake has dropped more than 100 feet.

LAKE CHAD: Has shrunk by 90% and if water continues to recede at current rate, the lake could vanish in 20 years.

From http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=1240

Last year, Americans drank 8.6 billion gallons of bottled water because they thought it was cleaner and safer (if they’re lucky!).   To me, drinking water quality controversy is more than the war between bottled and tap water.  It also represents consumerism,  ecological crisis such as the Eastern Garbage Patch,  and our national obsession with hydration.

A 60 foot Catamaran made from reclaimed water bottles. Mission: Highlight ecological damage and inspire sustainable solutions.

In Bottlemania, Elizabeth Royte explains how water went on sale and why millions around the world fell for an ingenious marketing ploy.   Some of her reasons are convenience, cleanliness and status.  Another explanation that I think should be added to the list is the pervasive media myth about the necessity of drinking 8 to 10 glasses a day.

Are the majority of Americans chronically dehydrated as Dr. Batmanghelidj claims in Your Body’s Many Cries For Water? Do we really need to drink 8-10 glasses a day?  Snopes doesn’t seem to think so.

Phew!