Water Wars

Cinema Libre Studio

R1 DVD

Water is essential to mankind and civilisations have risen and fallen around its availability. Political problems arise when a country cuts off rivers flowing through it rather than allow a flow to its neighbours downstream. Even here in Australia, all one country, there is conflict between neighbouring States over how much water each should be allowed for its farmers and how much should continue downstream for other States. There is an attitude among some farmers that every drop of water that flows past their property is wasted.

This documentary centres on Bangladesh where the problem is twofold. Neighbouring (and upstream) India is actively damming the rivers that flow into Bangladesh, causing drought at times, and releasing water downstream without notice when the dams are full, causing fatal flooding. The problems of too little then too much water are highlighted in this impoverished country. The early scenes of the documentary are taken during the monsoon season when 70% of the country is flooded, but this year the monsoons have failed. The flooding is caused by India releasing water from its brimming dams

India is itself water-starved in some areas and needs additional agriculture to support its growing population, but that isn’t the whole story. The reason for many of the new dams according to environmentalists is simply for power generation. Power is a commodity that India can sell to neighbouring countries. The dams scheme envisages blocking flows down the Brahmaputra river to Bangladesh and diverting the water westwards along the Indian side of the border. Power generation dams are spotted throughout the scheme, up to forty of them. Too bad about Bangladesh ‘s needs. It seems India’s irresponsible actions are purely profit-based and their neighbours’ needs are irrelevant. Because of such actions in India, China and other countries dams now threaten to displace up to 400 million people.

It is not all good news for the Indians either. The two main companies have such political influence that they can let the dam waters back up and flood villages and agricultural land, forcing relocation of part of the local population. There is little or no compensation offered for this.

As one person points out, the only thing that can stop India is the Chinese, if they dam the rivers on their side of the border and cut the flows to India.

In Bangladesh much of the water is now drawn from underground and is contaminated with arsenic. Although clean drinking water has been declared a basic human right it will only become reality if a cheap technology can be found to filter out the pollutants. A Bangladeshi scientist working in the United States feels he may have the solution, but will there be enough profit in this to attract a firm to make the units?

The documentary paints a grim picture. Without some responsibility on the part of countries like India it seems doomed to erupt into a shooting war sometime soon. This can only make the situation worse for Bangladesh.

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