A Documentary Project
HOPE IS BLUE
Although the United Nations has recognized “the right to safe and clean drinking water” as a human right since July 2020, today more than 2 billion people still live in regions where water supplies and water security are inadequate. As a result, more than 700 children die every day before the age of five due to contaminated water and poor hygiene.
Given the enormous challenges we face as humanity due to the global water crisis, HOPE IS BLUE takes you around the globe and tells the inspiring story of people who fight tirelessly to preserve our most important resource.
Production Lead: Lara Lone, Graubünden, Switzerland
Camera: Fabio Endrich, Zürich, Switzerland
Editing: Marc Welschinger, Flims, Switzerland
PR: Tabea Guhl, Zürich, Switzerland
Locations: Switzerland, Pakistan, Nepal, Nicaragua
Current Phase: Fundraising
Start for Production: 2025
Photo by © Aditya Saxena
© Kelsey Dody
Alarming Truth
Ten years ago, the well-known water expert Maude Barlow made frightening predictions regarding our use of the most precious commodity on earth in her work 'Blue Future'. If you believe the activist, who advised the 63rd President of the United Nations General Assembly, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, as a senior advisor in the campaign for the recognition of water as a human right, one has to assume that the global demand for Water supply could exceed supply by 40 percent as early as 2030 and more than half of the global population will live in areas where shortages are expected. The United Nations (UNHCR) estimates that around 700 million people could be displaced from their homes in the next seven years due to severe water shortages (2022). However, to feel the unrest, you don't have to look into the future, just look at the current situation.
Despite efforts, there are still around two billion people worldwide who do not have regular access to clean drinking water, of which around 771 million lack even basic drinking water supplies. According to recent research by UNICEF, more than 1.4 billion people, including 450 million children, live in areas where they experience high to extremely high water insecurity. Safe water would mean that it is nearby, available when needed, and free from contaminants that do not endanger people's health. Where safe water sources are polluted by corporations or conflict, people are forced to rely on rivers or lakes that are often so polluted that they lead to life-threatening diseases. The UNHCR estimates that 66 percent of the world's population suffers from severe water shortages for at least a month every year. In addition to water privatization, another dangerous threat is the use of agricultural land, which uses unimaginable amounts of water to produce fuel, animal feed, and other non-food products, often contaminates it with toxic pesticides and, at the same time, has an increasingly negative impact on the ecosystem (Alliance Sufosec, 2022).
© Tucker Tangeman
Water is a Human Right
On July 28, 2020, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 64/292, which recognized the right to drinking water and sanitation as a human right. While many take it for granted to refer to water as a human right, the recognition of water and later sanitation as a human right is a relatively new change in our international legal system and the formulation of the
Resolution 64/292 a truly historic moment. And yet the reality looks completely different. Although the United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution “recognizing the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right…” (A/RES/64/292), UNICEF reports that today more than 2 billion people in countries and Regions live where the water supply is inadequate. 450 million children still live in areas with high to extremely high water insecurity and it is estimated that more than 700 children worldwide die before the age of five every day due to contaminated water and poor hygiene (UNICEF, 2022).
Two-thirds of our blue planet is covered in water, but less than three percent of it is drinkable. While 92 percent of the population in Europe has access to clean drinking water sources, in Africa it is only 29 percent (Statista, 2022). The unequal distribution of drinking water means that people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America in particular suffer from water shortages. The increasing loss of important water resources not only has dramatic consequences for the affected countries but for the entire global community. One country's woes can quickly spread to neighboring states, leading to conflict and mass migration, as happened with Iran's flow of water to downstream Iraq, which also suffers from water shortages. By 2030, around 700 million people could be displaced due to severe water scarcity and by 2040, almost one in four children in the world will live in an area affected by extreme drought (UNICEF, 2023).
“We have made it our mission to find these people and let them wake us up. Because we need them more than ever – stories that give us courage and hope to act.”
Why this film?
As the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights to clean drinking water and sanitation, Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, emphasized at this year's meeting on human rights to water in St.Gallen, it is not about solidarity, but about living up to our responsibility for the negative impacts that we cause around the world and to ensure that the human right to water is equally respected everywhere. In addition to the psychological impact, the inundation of negative news we encounter every day everywhere and frightening predictions like the ones listed here leave us feeling unmotivated and even helpless in the face of change. This causes us to feel powerless and tend to do nothing. But there are those among us who keep the spark of confidence alive and have the will and courage to act and fight for what is good.
We have made it our mission to find these people and let them wake us up. Because we need them more than ever – stories that give us courage and hope to act.
© Simone Wenth
Collaboration Partner
The Skat Foundation is a legally independent non-profit organization (NGO) based in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Under the supervision of the Federal Foundation Supervisory Authority, the Skat Foundation carries the Zewo seal of quality as evidence of the transparent, efficient, and effective use of funds and resources to address the challenges of poverty and climate change in the world related to water, renewable energy, and waste management.
Be Part of the Mission.
Be Part of the Mission.
As we are still in the phase of collecting the necessary funds, in order to start production as planned, because this documentary truly matters,
we appreciate any financial support, no matter how little.
For more information in regard to fundraising or the film, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us via e-mail; lara.natalia.lone@gmail,com.
Thank you.