Review: Thirst

Thirst

Ok so here goes my attempt to summarize the documentary "Thirst". The main focus of the the documentary was water privatization, and how it affects communities. The film started off in Cochabamba,Bolivia. Cochabamba is Bolivias third largest city and also one of the poorest. Bechtel, a major company took over the water system, and raised the cost of water 30 to 300%. There were major riots referred to as "water wars" because of this change in prices and the new control over the water system. Snipers along with police were brought in during the riots and a 17 year old boy was killed. The community believed that the people should have a right to decide whether or not the water supply was owned by a company/industry or have it be a human right for all people with no individual ownership. Not only did the documentary also show Bolivia dealing with water privatization, it also focused on a small town in India. Many under-developed countries are struggling with water privatization and can not afford to pay for water. While Bolivia sees privatized water as bad, India looks at it from a different perspective. Since there is little rain in India, people have to take matters into their own hands and harvest the water that they do recieve. India preserves their water by a process called rainwater harvesting. They built ponds to help hold the rainwater, which then goes down stream into village wells to provide water to the community. By the community doing this and local people helping out they are providing "self help" for one another. Local companies can help them with this project since India recieves so little water. A man who lived in the small community of India believed that by starting to harvest rainwater in a small village can then extend on into the country and later into the world. Now onto the United States. The documentary focused on the town of Stockton, California. This town was also going through the process of water privatization. The major of Stockton, Gary Podesto, believed that privatizing the city's water supply would save the residents a lot of money over an extended period of time (around 170 million dollars over 20 years to be exact). This savings would come from not having to pay employees, benefits, insurance, etc. Thames water company was involved with mayor Pedesto and was interested in ownership of the city's water supply. The people of the community on the other hand, disagree. They dont want local companies to own their water supply, they think it should be a common right as a citizen and shouldnt be under someones ownership. Some employees even said that they would refuse to work for local companies and want to remain working for the government. Throughout the documentary it was clear that the majority of the community didnt like the thought of water privatization and thought that the water supply should be a human right compared an ownership.

Discussion:

When we were discussing the film in class some good points got brought up. Sara J mentioned that the council men who come up with the decisions on whether or not the water supply should be privatized, probably have the same views as the mayor, so the majority of the community is not fully represented. The council men are usually volunteers so the point was brought up, why would anyone work for someone or something that they dont agree with? Another idea that was mentioned in discussion was what if the price of water becomes as much as the price of gas? I mean we have seen how expensive gas has been, just last summer it was around $4 a gallon. How would we afford water if it cost that much? There are some ways to get around paying for gas such as walking, riding the bus, riding a bike or carpooling. How would you get around using water? Its a necesity a way of life. Being a college student I know I wouldnt be able to pay that much for water, I dont know what I would do if the price of water was that high, its scary to think about.

My thoughts:

When watching this documentary it got me thinking about our water supply. How we seem to have endless amounts of water at our fingertips. What if we lost all of the water from the lakes, streams, rivers and oceans and our water supply ran out? If we were put into the same positions as third world countries, what would we do? How would we get our water? What if water prices were as high as the price of gas? Would our country be able to afford it? All of these questions bring about concern for the U.S.. We see other countries such as India trying desperately to preserve their water supply so we know the possibility of not having enough water is there. Personally, I am going to try and conserve water as best as I can, hopefully our water supply wont run out and our country wont have to face water privatization.