Wire Story
‘Running Dry’ paints bleak picture of world water supply
By Logan C. Adams
Scripps Howard Foundation Wire
WASHINGTON - The screen fades to black, and brilliant white capital letters appear: “Worldwide, a child dies every 15 seconds from water related diseases.”
The lights go up, and Thursday’s premiere showing of “Running Dry” is over at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The audience of more than 100 – government officials, dignitaries and representatives of aid organizations – was deeply affected.
“I think it’s an excellent movie. The information it gives about water and sanitation is all accurate,” said Albert Wright, co-chairman of the Millennium Project’s Task Force on Water and Sanitation, an independent advisory body commissioned by the United Nations.
The movie focuses on the present or developing scarcity of water in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the American southwest. The causes vary, ranging from rapid urbanization in India to waste and over-consumption in the United States.
“By the end of this year, I want every decision-maker in the world to put water as the number one priority,” said James Thebaut, who wrote, produced and directed the film.
Thebaut, who owns a production company in Redondo Beach, Calif., plans to show the film at film festivals and on college campuses and is looking for a commercial distributor.
The movie was inspired by the book “Tapped Out” by former Sen. Paul Simon, D-Ill., who worked on the project with Thebaut before his death in 2003. Simon’s wife, Patti, has been involved since fall.
“Every day, 14,000 people die because of a lack of water … and 9,500 of these are children,” says the narrator, Jane Seymour, before the film shows an African woman placing the body of a child in the back of a truck filled with countless other corpses of children.
The film is filled with images of environmental devastation, disease and poverty caused by the unavailability of clean water – children drink from water sources contaminated by untreated sewage and fights break out at wells.
But those fights pale in comparison to the armed conflict the film says will occur when nations are unable to provide enough potable water. “Nations fight over oil, but as valuable as it is, there are substitutes for oil,” Seymour says in the film. “However, there are no substitutes for water.”
Koby Koomson, executive director of the Africa Works Foundation and Ghana’s former ambassador to the United States, praised the film. “Most diseases in developing countries are water-borne. If we could have a strong focus on eradicating water-borne diseases… I think we’ll see a major reduction in mortality rates among children who are the most vulnerable,” he said.
To prevent the crisis from growing worse, the movie and its creators advocate cooperation among governments, businesses and non-profit organizations. Thebaut said the purpose of the film is to send a wake-up call to the world and warn that much work will be necessary to guarantee clean water for everyone.
Estimates for the costs of such an endeavor are hard to make, but the film says it would cost $16 billion per year.
Which, the narrator adds, is what North America and Europe spend annually on pet food.
By Logan C. Adams
Scripps Howard Foundation Wire
WASHINGTON - The screen fades to black, and brilliant white capital letters appear: “Worldwide, a child dies every 15 seconds from water related diseases.”
The lights go up, and Thursday’s premiere showing of “Running Dry” is over at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The audience of more than 100 – government officials, dignitaries and representatives of aid organizations – was deeply affected.
“I think it’s an excellent movie. The information it gives about water and sanitation is all accurate,” said Albert Wright, co-chairman of the Millennium Project’s Task Force on Water and Sanitation, an independent advisory body commissioned by the United Nations.
The movie focuses on the present or developing scarcity of water in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the American southwest. The causes vary, ranging from rapid urbanization in India to waste and over-consumption in the United States.
“By the end of this year, I want every decision-maker in the world to put water as the number one priority,” said James Thebaut, who wrote, produced and directed the film.
Thebaut, who owns a production company in Redondo Beach, Calif., plans to show the film at film festivals and on college campuses and is looking for a commercial distributor.
The movie was inspired by the book “Tapped Out” by former Sen. Paul Simon, D-Ill., who worked on the project with Thebaut before his death in 2003. Simon’s wife, Patti, has been involved since fall.
“Every day, 14,000 people die because of a lack of water … and 9,500 of these are children,” says the narrator, Jane Seymour, before the film shows an African woman placing the body of a child in the back of a truck filled with countless other corpses of children.
The film is filled with images of environmental devastation, disease and poverty caused by the unavailability of clean water – children drink from water sources contaminated by untreated sewage and fights break out at wells.
But those fights pale in comparison to the armed conflict the film says will occur when nations are unable to provide enough potable water. “Nations fight over oil, but as valuable as it is, there are substitutes for oil,” Seymour says in the film. “However, there are no substitutes for water.”
Koby Koomson, executive director of the Africa Works Foundation and Ghana’s former ambassador to the United States, praised the film. “Most diseases in developing countries are water-borne. If we could have a strong focus on eradicating water-borne diseases… I think we’ll see a major reduction in mortality rates among children who are the most vulnerable,” he said.
To prevent the crisis from growing worse, the movie and its creators advocate cooperation among governments, businesses and non-profit organizations. Thebaut said the purpose of the film is to send a wake-up call to the world and warn that much work will be necessary to guarantee clean water for everyone.
Estimates for the costs of such an endeavor are hard to make, but the film says it would cost $16 billion per year.
Which, the narrator adds, is what North America and Europe spend annually on pet food.
posted by Logan C. Adams at 2/26/2005 02:15:00 PM
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