Shrinking water reserves are sounding the death knell for humanity.With water paucity ailing the entire world, its conservation assumes greater significance in today’s times.Keeping this in mind, a film festival on water was organised by Bakul Foundation along with international NGO ONE DROP in association with the State Government here on Thursday to mark the World Water Day.The day-long screening aimed at creating awareness among people that every drop of water matters and appealing them to save this precious lifeline of survival.The film festival was an interesting mix of nine documentaries and short films by film-makers of national and international repute.Each of the film dealt with issues around water wars, privatisation of water, scarcity and pollution of water, flood control mechanisms, traditional water management, conservation of water etc.The festival began with an award-winning 90-minute documentary by Sam Sozzo ‘Blue Gold: World Water Wars’. Blue Gold documents the environmental issues as to why we are rapidly losing our fresh water supplies, the politics behind water ownership and distribution that are worsening the situation, and what will happen as water becomes increasingly scarce. The documentary looked at how we are using up water faster than it can be replenished through natural systems.This was followed by a short film ‘Water Business is Good Business’ by Sanjay Barnela and Vasant Sabherwal that dealt with India’s `2,000 crore bottling industry which is in a way accelerating water crisis in urban India.In Odisha’s context, a music video ‘Disaster Unlimited’ and a short film ‘A Road Back Home’, both by Odia flimmaker Snehasis Das, were screened.There was also a special screening on the subject for kids in the form of an animation ‘Rango’ by Gore Verbisinki. This animated movie had last year won the Oscar as the Best Animated feature. The film revolves around Rango, a pet chameleon always on the lookout for action and adventure.He accidentally ends up in the town of Dirt, an outpost that is in desperate need of a new sheriff. The thirsty Rango instantly takes on the role of both and selfishly agrees to take on the case of their missing water.The festival concluded with ‘Flow: For Love of Water’, a documentary on the global water crisis. The movie is about multinational corporate giants who sell substandard, overpriced water to people.The documentary featured interviews with environmentalists like Vandana Shiva and provided solutions in the form of low cost and alternative purification technologies that can lead to a global turnaround for the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world. The film unveiled the corporate greed of businesses like Nestle, Coca Cola and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).The film was followed by a panel discussion with experts from the field on the theme of World Water Day - Water and Food Security.
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