The largest users of water, industries and agricultural, have a special responsibility to care for Water The Drop of Life. Without water there is no energy, no food, no product.
In this episode we focus on the stories of industries and farmers across the globe & explore how water is managed and mismanaged…
Jimmy Cater: “We are just seeing the horizon of the need to conserve water, a challenge for new ideas and technologies.”
Kofi Annan: “The way we are reducing the water tables and using it irresponsibly, there will not be enough for every-one.”
SYNOPSIS: For human and animal survival there is an unquestionable need for clean water, people need to drink. And there is another definite thing: the need to eat. In order to have food, there must be water. A great deal of it.
Irrigation seems to be the key for successful agriculture. Across thousands of fields, paddies and terraces, in greenhouses and backyard plots, water is the aorta of agriculture. In fact by most estimates agriculture uses as much as 75 % of the global fresh water supply.
As overexploitation of fresh water reservoirs is becoming a problem, measures of irrigation are being reconsidered. The challenge is: doing more with less.
To meet the demands of agribusiness in Southwest Kansas, historically been a ‘Dust Belt” farmers have been overexploiting their underground aquifer. They have been withdrawing the water without considering the consequences of continually exceeding the recharge rate. Researchers are assisting by testing highly efficient ‘nozzle heads’, spraying the water targeting the plants directly and in this way preventing large amounts of water to evaporation.
Tackling over exploitation and drought farmers in Kenya’s Rift Valley implement an elegant form of ‘drip irrigation’, whilst in Mexico, irrigation with “aguas negras” — waste water — has long been the saving grace to meet the needs of the dwellers of this dry region.
Shimon Perez: “In our case, almost all irrigation is computerized. We have a whole system of irrigation and you put water like your doctor puts drops of medicine in your eyes, very very careful.”
Industries face another critical dilemma: how to balance increased production goals while sustaining the natural resources that power industrial output?
In the heavy industry sector a Japanese steel company and an Italian car factory are leading in water conservation. Healthy environments ask for responsible industries. Another forerunner in water conservation can be found in the province of Saskatoon, in Canada, There the world’s first Zero-Effluent Pulp Mill is setting an example for world standards. Its technologies is designed and implemented as ‘close loop’, a zero effluent recycling system. Admirably preserving natural water levels in the regional ecosystem, keeping a legendary river pristine.
While some corporations can be prized and valued and others are still seeking to get pure profit out of nature…and too often industry has lobbied successfully to block legislation procured by governments, or by paying fines too often got away with it. When this happens, where can water find a powerful champion? We asked Anita Roddick. Anita: Grass root activism, a vigilante consumer, a political consumer who challenges how governments are run, or they can ignore governments and go straight to corporations and challenge… and that that’s fabulously exiting!
VIPs in this episode: Jimmy Carter, Shimon Peres, Queen Noor, Mikhail Gorbachev, Anita Roddick,Ted Danson. Locations in this episode: Bali, Japan, USA, Kenya, Mexico, Canada, Egypt, USA, Thailand, Ukraine, Chille, Italy, Germany, Belgium and Spain.
Themes in this episode: Water Management, Global, Livelihood, Resources, Drought, Dry-rice, Water Pollution, Water Treatment Technologies, Industrial Alliances.
• Aired worldwide over 60 countries, including PBS America nation wide.