Water Politics
We
have produced a series of five films on water, documenting
the emerging crisis in water management in this country.
We used a political economy approach to document how mis-management
of water supplies has exacerbated problems of either too
much (floods) or too little water (pollution, drought,
urban water supplies). We also critically looked at notions
such of community involvement in water mangagement.
Hunting
Down Water
Client / Financial Support:Winrock International/Ford
Foundation
Duration: 32 mins
The
present water crisis is largely a crisis of our own making.
It is not about failing monsoons or about the fact that
parts of India are naturally prone to scarcity. Areas
that were formerly water-surplus, today have an acute
and chronic shortage of water. This transformation has
come about largely because of changing patterns of water
use. Cropping patterns have altered across the country,
with less water-demanding pulses giving way to water intensive
cash cropping. Two crops a year have been replaced by
three crops a year, probably necessary to meet the growing
food requirements of a hungry nation. But there are changes
which defy logic. The growing number of private swimming
pools in big cities, rain dances and water amusement parks
offering ridiculous water-intensive sport such as 'Snow
Valley'.
Much
of the additional demand for water has been met from tube
wells that have mushroomed all over the Indian landscape.
In parts of northern Gujarat, water is now available 800
feet below the surface. With the water table falling at
30 feet a year, water supplies simply will not last.
There
is a social dimension to this environmental crisis. Inevitably,
rural India, and within rural India the very poor, have
had to face the brunt of the water shortage. Water is
pumped or diverted from the rural countryside to meet
the unending needs of India's urban population - for drinking
purposes, but also, to wash cars, to fill swimming pools,
to ensure adequate water in water amusement parks or simply
to flush. With a plummeting water table tube wells and
hand pumps have gone dry. More and more of the rural poor
are now forced to migrate - in search of work, but also,
simply in search of water.
Hunting
down water looks at the conflicting uses of water
in our everyday lives - both rural and urban.
River
Taming Mantras
Client / Financial Support:Winrock International/Ford
Foundation
Duration: 36 mins
Large
parts of eastern India are subject to annual flooding.
Over the last 50 years the government has built 14,000
kms of embankments in an attempt to tame the rivers of
eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam and Orissa. Despite
the massive expenditure losses to flooding and the area
that is now vulnerable to flooding has only increased.
16% of Bihar is permanently water logged, a direct consequence
of the construction of embankments. River Taming Mantras
explores the technological economic and political rationale
that underlies the adoption of such flood control measures.
The film demonstrates that because these rivers carry
enormous silt load they have enormous power. Attempts
to control these rivers are unlikely to succeed. On the
other hand the vast sums of money spent on building and
maintainence of these embankments provides endless opportunities
for the siphoning of funds. Flood relief is a milk cow
no one wants to see go dry!
Water
Business is Good Business
Client / Financial Support:Winrock International/Ford
Foundation
Duration: 26 mins
India's
water bottling industry today stands on an annual worth
of about 1,800 crore rupees (1 crore = 10 million). While
this may be partially related to the emerging purchasing
power of the middle class it is also an accurate reflection
of the accelerating water crisis in urban India. This
crisis does not, of course, affect everybody to the same
extent. If Lutyen's Delhi receives 400 litres per person
per day, the slums of Najafgarh receive less than 30 litres
per person per day. This crisis is rooted not so much
in the overall availability of water, as in the patterns
of consumption and failure to regulate consumption through
appropriate and equitable tariff structures. The problem
is further compounded by a general urban mindset that
seeks to source water from the rural countryside, rather
than focussing on its conservation. This film travels
from Delhi to Indore and from Bombay to Chennai, exploring
the politics and economics of urban water supplies. In
each instance we come across the same solution - the construction
of mega-projects to bring water from distant rivers to
our various cities. But this is fire-fighting at best!
For, even as we source water from distant locations, with
all the attendant problems of displacing rural people
from their homes and livelihoods, the growing needs of
exploding, upwardly mobile urban populations will simply
ensure a continually growing need for water and more water.
Small
Remedies
Client / Financial Support:Winrock International/Ford
Foundation
Duration: 30 mins
There
is an accelerating water scarcity in large parts of rural
India. The foremost attempt to tackle the problem has
revolved around involving local communities in reviving
traditional tanks and creating additional water storage
structures. The attempt is to slow the speed with which
water runs off degraded mountainsides. Get water to walk
not run. And in the process help recharge Indias depleting
acquifers.
But
rural communites are riven with internal divisions and
these divisions work to hinder such attempts to decentralize
the conservation and management of water. The film takes
a closer look at the challenges of watershed conservation
in rural India, specifically within the context of the
caste and class based divisions that characterize Indian
society.
Algebra Of Water
Client / Financial Support:Winrock International/Ford
Foundation
Duration: 48 mins
"These things look good only on television… things about
economy and saving water and all that" say Nidhi and Madhur
looking fresh after a rollicking rain dance party. Or
take the case of Somabhai Patel of Memna village in Gujarat
who owns 14 borewells on his agricultural land, "The water
used to be at 100 feet below the ground just a few years
ago, now it has gone down to 500 feet". The Municipal
Commissioner of Mumbai reveals startling facts to highlight
the misuse of water by the urban elite, "Mumbai has 15
lakh cars each using 15 litres of water per day for washing
- a total of about 2.25 crore litres of potable water
is used only on cars everyday". Quotes that reinforce
the fact that the present water crisis is largely a crisis
of our own making. It is not about failing monsoons or
the facts that parts of India are naturally dry.
There is a social dimension to this crisis. Inevitably,
rural India, and the very poor, have had to face the brunt
of the water shortage. Water is diverted from rural India
to meet the unending needs of the urban population - as
drinking water, but also, to wash cars, to fill swimming
pools, or to ensure adequate water in amusement parks.
As the water table plummets, tube wells and hand pumps
have gone dry. Deprived of water more and more of the
rural poor are now forced to migrate - in search of work,
but also, simply in search of water.
Algebra of Water is a documentation of this man-made
water crisis.
Algebra of Water received special mention
at the KARA film festival, 2004 Karachi, Pakistan
Village Of Dust, City Of Water
Client / Financial Support:PSBT, Prasar Bharti
Duration: 28 mins
Hopes buried in the concrete of a failed, dry canal;
a parched well used as a storage tank; an entire generation
displaced by a big dam; a village forced to eat grass
after years of drought; and a party that boasts of artificial
rain for its guests. Village of Dust, City of Water is
a film whose theme is anchored in the critical water resource
and water supply issues currently facing rural populations
across India-as depicted in contrast to urban water supplies.
The film uses poetry, accompanied by music, as the primary
narrative form to compliment the interviews and documentations
taken from the many sides of each critical water issue.
Dry Thoughts In A Dry Land
Client / Financial Support:Royal Netherlands
Embassy and IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre
Duration: 31 mins
RNE proposes to take further the issues discussed in
our earlier documentaries on the political - economy of
water in India by exploring gender issues related to water
and its effect on home based economic activities and poverty
alleviation. This in turn leads to the vicious cycle of
no water, no work, no food and hence migration to slums
in towns and cities. This is critically important in our
documentation of the "collateral" damage associated with
the mismanagement of water. The film focuses on case studies
based in and around urban Bhuj in Kutch where the poor
are dependant on water for their small scale home based
economic activities but a sub standard water supply has
a detrimental impact on their income.
