This two-part, 82-minute film examines the critical water situation in Kenya, one of the world’s most water scarce countries, where people have just 30% of the minimum water requirement needed for a decent life. This is a hard-hitting, often shocking film, which cannot fail to have a profound effect on all its viewers.
Serving as a wake-up call to many of us, this film focuses in particular on the relationship between deforestation (of both montane forests and natural lowland vegetation cover) and the loss of water supplies to the country as a whole. The film addresses issues such as the mass clearing of bushland (for charcoal production), pollution, waste and over-exploitation of water supplies.
The film starts at the top of the mighty Mt Kenya, one of the country’s five most important water towers, where we see snow on the Equator and the beginning of the long journey of water from the mountaintop, down through the montane forest, into the dry agricultural areas and onwards to the Indian Ocean. Each phase in the water cycle is explained and illustrated with dramatic visuals, and the threats to water availability along each step of the way are impossible to ignore.
Areas covered in this wide-ranging film include Mt Kenya, the Aberdare Mountains, the Mau forest, upcountry farming areas, lowland bush country, lowland agricultural areas, northern desert country, the Tsavo National Park and the Indian Ocean marine environment.
