So I went to the movie showing of "Flow" presented by USUAA's Sustainability Committee and I was shocked. Fun fact: $2 worth of water can supply 5 families for a year in Africa. Although the $2 figure seems like nothing to us, some of those poor families cannot even afford it. What's even worse is that the big corporations control water over there. Can you believe that? The movie asks the important question of whether it is ethical to charge for water or not. The movie also compares water with air. Should people be charged for air? Personally, I'd ask the question: should people be charged for food? In my personal opinion, I think the movie should have phrased that question in a different way. Since water is regulated, filtered, and manufactured, I do--yes I do believe that the government should charge for water. There is always a choice of drinking water from lakes, but that isn't very safe at all. Anyway, the prominent problem in Africa needs to be resolved. Hopefully, the people in Africa can resolve the issue.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Flow - The Blue Gold of the Earth
So I went to the movie showing of "Flow" presented by USUAA's Sustainability Committee and I was shocked. Fun fact: $2 worth of water can supply 5 families for a year in Africa. Although the $2 figure seems like nothing to us, some of those poor families cannot even afford it. What's even worse is that the big corporations control water over there. Can you believe that? The movie asks the important question of whether it is ethical to charge for water or not. The movie also compares water with air. Should people be charged for air? Personally, I'd ask the question: should people be charged for food? In my personal opinion, I think the movie should have phrased that question in a different way. Since water is regulated, filtered, and manufactured, I do--yes I do believe that the government should charge for water. There is always a choice of drinking water from lakes, but that isn't very safe at all. Anyway, the prominent problem in Africa needs to be resolved. Hopefully, the people in Africa can resolve the issue.
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Marco this is a great post. I completely agree with these people and their anger towards corporations that are making a huge profit off of water. When I am on vacation Alaskan water is what I miss the most. It´s so fresh and we can drink straight out of the tap. In places like Florida they charge up to $4 for a bottled water. That is insane!
ReplyDeleteThis also reminds me of an incident that happened at my job the other day. We have packaged sterile water that is used for surgeries. They have an expiration date! How does sterile water go bad? This is definitely a company trying to make money off of the health care system. No wonder health care is so expensive in the U.S.
I wonder what kind of chemicals (if any), they put in sterile water. Maybe the chemicals (if any), have some kind of adverse effect on the water. All I know is, that water accumulates bacteria overtime. Also, the higher the temperature in which it is being stored, the faster that bacteria multiplies. Anyway, I hope you guys are using re-usable water bottles or at least recyclable bottles. If not, something definitely needs to be done about that.
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DeleteThis is a great posting! I can see a big chain of the problem here. We, as the Takers, consume lots of bottled water, and the multinational water companies produce tons of them in Africa. By doing so, the water companies pollute the drinkable water in that area. Therefore, people live in Africa can’t drink water out of their lake anymore since it is so polluted now. Thus, the government can’t help but charging for water because they have to filter it to make it drinkable again. However, African people can’t afford to pay for it, and also they can’t afford to buy the bottled water, so they are threatened by water shortage even though water is supposed to be a basic element for living. Am I getting it right? I haven’t watched the documentary Flow yet, so I could get this wrong. I will check this out as soon as possible. Thank you for introducing this movie!
ReplyDeleteGreat topic, I 100% agree on strange this concept seems, especially to those of us almost surrounded by clean water. Traveling in Africa during a drought was an incredible learning experience, made me realize how fortunate i am to have a personal supply (well) of some of the most amazing h20 earth has to offer. I'm reminded of this every time i drive to girdwood and see people filling up their bottles at that pipe sticking out of the cliff face...
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the politics, as our resources per capita dwindle, the incentives and profits from providing water will shift to solutions that re-use, purify, and collect existing water where it is needed.
This problem is really a huge red flag to humanity that the ecosystem that gave birth to us cannot sustain our current way of life. The trend of price increase in things that were once so abundant that they were free will continue as long as we as a society refuse to accept that these systems HAVE value, and the cost of doing it ourselves it absolutely the worst economic decision.