The world’s “limitless” flow of water is fast approaching an impasse of existing as a naturally sustainable resource. Director Irena Salina’s latest documentary spans the planet uncovering the state of the substance we all need to survive. Producer Steven Starr, Maude Barlow (National Chairperson for The Council of Canadians, a progressive advocacy group), William E. Marks (the publisher of Water Voices from Around the World), and crew members joined Salina after the film’s premiere to field audience questions about the research behind this crisis and how we can join the startlingly small community who are taking action.

Q: What inspired you to start the research on this topic and do a film?

Salina: I was starting to save articles ... there was a Nation article with the headline, “Who Owns Water? Is It Going to Be the Oil of the 21st Century?” There was a small story five years ago in New Orleans – it was going to be the biggest privatization deal (of water) in America – all the players were there. I was like, ”Oh my God, ‘This is a Molière play... let me go there and try to see what’s happening.’”

Q: Are any of the political parties in this primary year addressing this issue at any level?

Barlow: No, there has been no talk of water. There are 36 states in this country that are on the verge of some type of water crisis. The United States is now sending a third of its water out of national borders in the form of something called “virtual water trade,” which is where a country or community uses its water to produce something it then exports. It is simply untenable to be taking water from the parched areas of this country and sending them away. It’s all about economic globalization and nation-state competition. This region is particularly in danger of the declining snow melt from the Rockies, the crisis of the Colorado River. The reservoirs of Lake Meade and Lake Powell are down below half and are not going to go back up. Being here, I get no sense that anybody knows this. I’m staying in one of those condos and when I turn my shower on it hurts me (the water) is coming out so fast! I think that we in the global north have this notion that whatever we run out of, technology can fix.

Q: For those people who don’t have time to become activists, what does a normal person do?

Salina: There are people in this film who are not activists at all... what about starting local? Someone said to me, “I hate you, Irena, because I can’t brush my teeth anymore without turning the tap off,“ and that to me is great.

Starr: Go to www.flowthefilm.com and there’s a link to action steps which are growing. Article 31 (a petition to add a 31st article to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, establishing access to clean and potable water as a fundamental human right) can be found there. It’s our hope that even by people thinking about it we can create attention and awareness.