Educational Media Reviews Online

The Waterlords is a topical and well-produced film that will generate lively discussion among viewers on the subject of the political economy of water. The author of the script and host of the film is Dr. Terje Tvedt, professor of Geography and Research Director for the Centre for Development Studies at the University of Bergen, Norway. He is also a member and past president of the International Water History Association. Since the 1980s, Dr. Tvedt has been publishing on the political economy of water and is considered an expert in the field. Dr. Tvedt takes the audience to multiple sites in Europe, Asia and Africa and elucidates each time how the struggle over water between and within societies shapes politics and economies.

The Nile River provides one example of countries vying to gain control over water. This long river flows through 10 countries, many of which want to use its waters for irrigation and hydropower. Egypt and Sudan signed a treaty negotiated by England in 1959 that Egypt would receive 2/3 of the Nile’s water volume and Sudan would get the remaining 1/3. The Merowe Dam in Sudan, which opened in 2009, is changing the historical balance and threatening the treaty. Egypt worries that the Nile’s flow will be reduced by the dam and upstream countries, such as Ethiopia, that were completely excluded from the treaty want it to be renegotiated. The movie asks the audience to consider the United Nations’ finding that one of four people live in a country experiencing water shortage, and one of two people live in a multination river basin. Based on this fact, Dr. Tevdt predicts that situations similar to the struggle over the Nile River will become more numerous and even violent in the future.

The film successfully visualizes the centrality of water to life with live footage of people and rivers in South Africa, Egypt, Sudan, Spain, Norway, India, Pakistan, and other countries in the Indus River basin. People are seen collecting water, transporting water, performing religious rituals with water, and celebrating water at festivals. The director has captured both the beauty of water flowing through a gorge or down a waterfall, and the ugliness of people fighting over water. Director Larson has also emphasized the division in water availability between the wealthy and poor with footage of Parisians paying exorbitant prices at a water bar versus poverty-stricken South Africans trying to divert water from municipal systems because they cannot afford to pay for it.

The fascinating and informative content in the film is communicated by a voiceover, in excellent, easily-understood English, and live footage interspersed with interviews or speeches. Many of the interviews and speeches are given by senior politicians, a fact that underscores the level and seriousness of the water conflicts. As needed, the film clips have English subtitles, with the exception of one featuring a Spanish politician.

Any audience that views this film will have plentiful fodder for discussion. What is the fairest way to distribute water rights? Should upstream or downstream countries have more rights? Could the United States foreseeably have water conflicts with its neighboring countries? How can conflicts over water be resolved peacefully? The movie is ideal for environmental science courses in senior high school or college, or for environmental programming at public libraries.