A World Without Water

Channel 4

26 Apr

The world is running out of water, all of us will face it soon, some of us are facing it now.

As the highest water bills ever land on doormats across the UK this April, this film investigates the future of the world's water, and paints a disturbing picture of a world running out of the most basic of life's essentials.

8 year old Vanessa and her parents have to walk almost a mile down the cliffs of El Alto in Bolivia to collect water from an unreliable well every day. Yet, they live just a few hundred metres from their city's main water treatment plant and can see millions of gallons just beyond the barbed wire fence. They are victims of waters increasing commodification.

In 2000, the members of of the United Nations committed to halving the number of people in the world without access to water, by 2015. But within our lifefime over half of the world's population will be living without access to safe water and sanitation.

The struggle for this precious resource and the battle for its ownership is explored through compelling stories of families living in Bolivia, Detroit, Dar Es Salaam and Rajestan. As the background to these stories we explore the conflicts over the future of water and see how even those living in the relatively water-rich UK hold the survival of the planet in our hands.

Action Aid

Water Aid

War on Want

World Development Movement

Centre for Science and the Enviroment

Michigan Welfare Rights