The film BLUE GOLD: WORLD WATER WARS, will be presented on Thursday May 13 at the Florence Filberg Centre in Courtenay. The film, produced by Sam Bozzo, is based on the book "Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water" by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke (2003).

The authors suggest that water is one more thing to add to the list of endangered resources. They pose many questions, including the following: is water a right, a resource or a commodity? Who owns it? Does your (hopefully) representative government have the right to give it away, sell it or pollute it?

Water is the stuff of life. Without it, we are simply one more lifeless planet. The three percent of fresh, replenishable water on earth is being divided up, for profit, by corporations. Largely in the way Monsanto is aiming to control the food supply through genetically modified seeds, a handful of transnational corporations (Suez, RWE, Vivendi) are looking to consolidate and control the world's water supply.

Groundwater sustainability is a key issue. Many countries pump up to fifteen times more water from the local watershed than is replaced. This creates an imbalance which, when added to the problems of overgrazing, wind and flooding (often due to clearcutting trees), leads to soil erosion, a hardening of the top layer of earth which makes it difficult for rainwater to be absorbed and causes it to run out to sea. This has two effects; it makes the groundwater situation much worse, and adds to the growing problem of desertification. The massive rate of urbanization since the end of WWII has led to paving over much open land, which prohibits rainwater absorption into the groundwater system, again causing runoff into the oceans.

The film is being shown in several Vancouver Island communities, as a preface to the conference "Our Water Our Future", to be held in Nanaimo on May 29 & 30. Maud Barlow will be the keynote speaker. Other presenters include Rafe Mair, Corky Evans, Andrew Gage, Ingmar Lee and Trevor Wicks, creator of the series of 3D Watershed Maps.

Bozzo's film examines many water related concerns, and offers potential tangible solutions, based on opinions and ideas from a varied number of professionals and experts. Movie begins at 7:00 pm. Admission by donation. Sponsored by Comox Valley Water Watch. For information, contact 336-8429.