A world without water/iStockphoto

Contrary to the latest James Bond offering Quantum of Solace, if you’re looking for a hero to save the public’s right to water from corporations and corrupt governments, you’re more likely to find the name “Barlow, Maude Barlow” at the top of the list. Maude Barlow, who was recently appointed the first senior adviser on water to the president of the UN General Assembly, and is included in the new documentary Blue Gold: World Water Wars, based on her and Tony Clarke’s groundbreaking book, Blue Gold: The Corporate Theft of the World’s Water Supply.

For those who haven’t viewed Quantum of Solace, James Bond’s fictional nemesis is a water baron named Mr. Greene securing Bolivia’s water supply from the corrupt government to depose them with a dictator for profit and water rights to all the stolen water. This is loosely based on the real-life Bolivian Water Wars depicted in Blue Gold, which included the death of 17-year old citizen Victor Hugh Daza, who was shot through the face by the twenty snipers ordered by the Bolivian government to subdue the protesting crowd agitating for water rights.

So although Quantum receives praise for art-imitating-life and making a general audience aware of this battle, Blue Gold proves that non-fiction is often much more uglier and frightening than fiction.

The horrors of the real-life water wars don’t stop with what happened in Bolivia. Blue Gold details cases of corrupt governments receiving bribes to privatize water, to the Ex-President of Mexico allegedly granting huge water concessions to Coca-Cola, a company he was CEO of prior to his presidency, to the current Mexican government allowing raw sewage to irrigate Mexico City farms (the cause of the recent E.coli outbreak in imported tomatoes and peppers in California). But perhaps the most alarming political corruption story covered in Blue Gold is about the soon-to-be Ex-US President George Bush Jr. and Sr. who have allegedly purchased huge quantities of land in Paraguay over the largest fresh water aquifer in the world.

On the corporate-side of water corruption, Blue Gold shows real-life water barons, from those trying to own Alaska’s huge water supply for bulk export to profit from a thirsty world, to Coca-Cola selling bottled water in water-starved Kenya, and even European rose plantations sucking Kenya’s Lake Naivaisha dry to supply Europe with roses. Europe, in denial of its own water crisis, imports all roses because it doesn’t have enough water to grow its own.

While James Bond wows us with larger-than-life stunts and fabricated chases, the real water warriors are average people, sometimes risking their lives, fighting for our right to have access to clean, drinking water. Joan Root, the Academy Award Nominated documentary filmmaker, made great efforts to save Lake Naivaisha from being depleted. Blue Gold documents her murder from unknown assailants who didn’t share her views of protecting the water supply.

Instead of M-15 secret agents rounding the corner, Walter PPKs in hand, to save our vital water, you’ll find average grassroots citizens fighting corporations like Nestle from draining the Great Lakes. Terry Swier and the Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, and Jon Steinhaus of Waterkeepers of Wisconsin, retired citizens raising funds from garage sales and poker tournaments to pay legal fees to fight for their right to their local water supply. Blue Gold documents how Wisconsin beats Nestle out of state only to send them to Michigan where the court case that ensued ended with stunning results. These are the real-life water heroes.

Mainstream narrative film reflects the social and historical context in which it is created. Quantum of Solace reflects the growing angst around our ability to access clean drinking water. Water, considered to be the next oil, will only continue to be an increasingly precious commodity.