Irena Salina's award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st century - The World Water Crisis. Salina builds a case against the growing privatization fo the world's dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel. Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question, CAN ANYONE REALLY OWN WATER?
Beyond identifying the problem, FLOW also gives viewers a look at the people and institutions providing practical solutions to the water crisis and those developing new technologies, which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and economic turnaround.
On average, bottled water costs 900 times the amount of tap water. This year, Americans will spend $40 billion on bottled water. 25% of all bottled water is re-packaged tap water. Tap water regulation has more stringent governmental standards than that of bottled water regulation. The amount of oil required to put one bottle of water in your hand would fill 1/4 of that same bottle. 90% of used water bottles are not recycled. Right now, millions of pounds of trash are floating in the Pacific Ocean to form an 'island' at least twice the size of Texas - 90% of that trash is discarded plastic.