Running Dry: Is It Documentary or Corporate Propaganda?

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Fri, 4 Mar 2005 17:44:18 -0500

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[WATERFORALL] Running Dry: Is It Documentary or Corporate

Propaganda?

 

 

 

 

 

News from Public Citizen's Water For All Campaign

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Running Dry: Is It Documentary or Corporate Propaganda?

 

Statement by Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Water for

All Campaign

 

How would you characterize images of impoverished people in developing

nations struggling with a lack of drinking water and sanitation

services

and suffering from life-threatening water-borne diseases?

 

" Gut-wrenching? "

 

" Tragic? "

 

Try " good marketing. "

 

In " Running Dry, " a newly released film by James Thebaut aimed at

winning support from well-meaning politicians, a multinational company

with no less a mission than privatizing the world's water for profit is

masking its real agenda behind a blizzard of powerful footage of the

world's least fortunate.

 

American Water Works, a subsidiary of the German conglomerate RWE, and

other multi-national water interests funded nearly the entire film,

ostensibly to bring attention to the world's water crisis. Apparently,

corporations are " for " clean water.

 

But even more enthusiastically, the private water corporations are

" for " profit. And the most readily available profit stream flows

from public funds given to private corporations for the alleged purpose

of providing water for the poor.

 

The film does lay out compelling footage of how the water crisis is

affecting people in South Africa, India, China and other countries.

What the picture fails to provide is any analysis of why people in the

developing world do not have access to safe and affordable drinking

water or why water should be considered a human right.

 

There is no mention that over the past two decades international

finance institutions like the World Bank have used their powerful

economic and political influence to pressure governments to restructure

their economies, slashing programs that provide services for their

citizens, so that their debts can be repaid. Countries where citizens

live on a dollar a day are forced to privatize services like water as a

condition of their desperately needed loan.

 

" Running Dry " does not discuss how privatization World Bank-style

becomes a feeding frenzy for foreign multinational corporations, eager

to scoop up struggling enterprises at bargain prices.

 

While the movie does address the issues of water pollution and the

growing specter of water scarcity, it does not address the debate about

whether large transnational corporations should be empowered by

governments to solve problems that are the responsibility of domestic

governments.

The movie subtly promotes " public-private partnerships, " but

shockingly does not explore the almost universal disasters that have

occurred around the world from showcase privatizations. From Atlanta,

Georgia, to Manila, The Philippines, and Nelspruit, South Africa, to

Buenos Aires, Argentina, privatization has caused consumer water rates

to increase dramatically, kept the poor from receiving piped water

services, created public health crises, and created pollution and other

environmental catastrophes.

 

Another test case of how privatization has failed is Bechtel's

contract in Iraq. Bechtel was awarded a 12-month contract worth up to

$1.03 billion, authorizing the company to oversee the rehabilitation,

reconstruction and expansion of key elements of Iraq's infrastructure,

including municipal water delivery and wastewater systems. Independent

evaluation of Bechtel's work was nearly impossible, in part due to

security precautions and the lack of transparency in the contract

process. But the information detailing Bechtel's contractual failures

in Hilla, Najaf, Diwaniyah, Sadr City and smaller villages where

families face crisis conditions due to the lack of access to clean

water

was abominable. For example, one of Bechtel's earliest priorities was

to ensure the provision of potable water supplies to the population of

southern Iraq in the first 60 days of the program. However, one year

later, there is little evidence that this mandate has been achieved;

instead, rising epidemics of cholera, kidney stones and diarrhea – all

water-borne illnesses – point to the failure of Bechtel's mission.

 

 

" Running Dry " capitalizes on the prestige of world leaders like

former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and Israeli political leader

Shimon Peres, while it fails to discuss the secret deals and social

turmoil that are the result of privatization and the failure of

governments to provide basic services for their people.

 

Rather than putting emphasis on the lack of cleanliness among the poor,

the film should have laid out the lack of political will to provide

safe

and affordable drinking water and sanitation services that we enjoy in

the developed world.

 

Paul Simon, the late Senator from Illinois, was deeply concerned about

the global water crisis and, prior to his untimely death, was involved

in the making of " Running Dry. " The corporations behind the film,

arguably more skilled in public relations strategies of the

greenwashing

variety than providing water services, understandably hope to hide

their

own motives behind Simon's genuine passion and sincerity. But key

among Simon's principles for addressing the world's water crisis

were conservation and environmental protection, wise water management

for the long-term public interest, robust financing for the public

sector and an increased citizen activism and involvement in water

policy

and development decisions. In countries around the globe, Big Water has

not only failed to achieve those laudable goals. It has actively

trampled them.

 

Perhaps the most brilliant marketing move of all, however, was the

not-so-coincidental introduction of a new water bill in the U.S.

Senate,

called " Safe Water: The Currency for Peace Act of 2005. " (We're

not kidding. C'mon, how could we even make that one up?) The bill

was timed to debut during the same week of the congressional showing of

Running Dry. What a clever behind-closed-doors move by Congress and

their water buddies.

 

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listserv with " Waterforall " in the

message.

 

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listserv with " Un Waterforall " in the

message.

 

For more information on the Water For All Campaign please visit

http://www.citizen.org/cmep/