Today, March 22, is World Water Day, an annual UN-sponsored day of action to support access to clean, safe water for the world’s people.
More people die from unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, calling for better protection and sustainable management of one of the Earth’s most precious resources.
The Secretary-General said that the poor “continue to suffer first and most from pollution, water shortages and the lack of adequate sanitation,” even while world leaders have the “know-how to solve these challenges and become better stewards of our water resources.”
On the occasion of World Water Day, the folks behind the Story of Stuff today released a short animated film which tells the story of bottled water and “manufactured demand” which talks about how corporations get Americans to buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week when water from a tap is almost free.
Narrated by Annie Leonard, The film explores the bottled water industry’s attacks on tap water safety and its use of environmental-themed marketing to cover up the mountains of plastic waste it produces.
From the Story of Bottled Water:
Globally, more than 1 billion have little choice but to use potentially harmful sources of water, leading to what the World Health Organization calls “a silent humanitarian crisis.” Meanwhile, many Americans, who generally have access to safe and abundant water from the kitchen tap, drink bottled water despite the enormous waste of money, energy and resources it represents.
Hat tip: John Graham at Chaffee Citizens for Sustainability
In a similar vein, check out “Plastic Bag”, a creative short film shown at the Telluride Film Festival in which a plastic bag ponders its immortality. By Ramin Bahrani (Chop Shop, Man Push Cart), narrated by Werner Herzog and original score by Kjartan Sveinsson of Sigur Rós.
World Water Day deserves our attention and action. Clean and available water can no longer be taken for granted.
I would like to call attention to the fact that today the crew from the film TAPPED departed Los Angeles on a 30 day/30 city tour that will end in New York on Earth Day. Salida is on their schedule for Saturday, March 27. The film TAPPED will be shown at the SteamPlant Theater at 7pm. Find a used single use plastic water bottle and come between 6 and 6:45 and exchange it for a reuseable stainless steel bottle … for FREE. The director and producer of the film will lead a Q&A following the showing.
More details can be found at http://www.ccfsustainability.org