Explained | World's Water Crisis | FULL EPISODE | Netflix

Summary

The episode from Netflix's 'Explained' series delves into the critical issue of the world's impending water crisis, highlighting how civilizations have thrived or perished based on access to water. With the likes of Cape Town and other major cities nearing 'Day Zero', this crisis threatens more urban centers due to droughts, climate change, and unsustainable water practices. Although the Earth has abundant water, the challenge is its uneven distribution and heavy reliance on only 1% for human needs. The episode explores how water is undervalued and mismanaged, a factor driving scarcity and conflict globally, while also posing profound questions about commodifying an essential human right.

Highlights

• Water scarcity set to affect major cities like London, São Paulo, and Beijing unless immediate changes occur ⚠️.
• Cape Town nearly ran out of water, sparking fears for other cities and highlighting the urgent need for change ⚡.
• Earth's abundant water isn't evenly distributed; we rely on just 1% of it for survival 🚿.
• The water crisis reveals socio-economic inequalities, especially regarding agricultural and industrial water use 🌾.
• Commodification of water sparks conflict, as seen in areas like Darfur, potentially driving wars over resources ⚔️.
• Desalination is a double-edged sword: a potential solution hindered by high costs and energy demands ⚙️.
• Economists tout water as 'the new petroleum', with its valuation carrying significant global economic implications 📈.
• Public conservation efforts in Cape Town exemplify how societal action can avert an immediate crisis and provide hope 🤝.

Key Takeaways

• Seven in ten people have running water at home, but many cities risk hitting 'Day Zero' without drastic changes 🚱.
• Cape Town was on the brink of shutting off taps, a dramatic example of the looming global water crisis 🔥.
• Only 1% of Earth's water is available for human use, making access highly unequal and complex 🌍.
• Mismanagement and under-valuation lead to water waste and exacerbate global scarcity 🚰.
• Desalination and other technologies can help but are costly and energy-intensive 💧.
• Water pricing might drive conservation but raises issues about access, especially for the poor 💸.
• Cape Town managed to delay their crisis with conservation efforts, showing public action can make a difference 🎯.
• Recognizing water's value before it's too late is crucial for future survival and sustainability 🌱.

Overview

The Netflix 'Explained' episode on 'World's Water Crisis' dives into the existential struggle over access to clean water, illustrating historical and present challenges. Civilizations worldwide have flourished or collapsed based largely on their ability to harness this limited resource. In modern times, the threat of 'Day Zero', where major cities like Cape Town may run out of water, looms large, underscoring a growing global crisis driven by environmental change and overconsumption.

Urban centers across the globe, from Jakarta to São Paulo, face the staggering reality of water scarcity due to factors like climate change, droughts, and inefficient usage. While Earth holds ample water resources, only a tiny fraction is accessible for human and agricultural use, which has become increasingly strained. This has led to soaring incidences of regional conflicts, and protests against the commodification of water often highlight the socio-economic disparities integral to the crisis.

While technological solutions like desalination offer potential relief, they are costly and not yet viable on a large scale. This complex puzzle of ensuring equitable access and preserving water resources brings to light the pressing need to treat water as more than just a commodity. By examining pricing structures tied to consumption and promoting conscious conservation efforts, as seen in Cape Town, societies can begin to address these challenges before they become insurmountable.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 03:00: Introduction to the Water Crisis The chapter introduces the concept of the global water crisis by highlighting the convenience of having access to clean, running water, which is a privilege not everyone shares. It draws a historical parallel showing that civilizations capable of managing water resources thrived, while those that failed to do so did not survive. Currently, 70% of the global population has access to running water at home, suggesting significant progress, but implicitly acknowledging that 30% still faces challenges.
• 03:00 - 10:00: The Global Water Scarcity Challenge The chapter discusses the looming threat of water scarcity as exemplified by Cape Town, South Africa, which is on the brink of becoming the first major city to run out of water. The city faces Day Zero, a point where most of its water taps will be turned off due to a severe drought, affecting four million residents.
• 10:00 - 15:00: The Impact of Agriculture and Industry on Water Usage The chapter discusses how various major cities worldwide, such as Cape Town, São Paulo, Melbourne, Jakarta, and others, are facing severe water shortages, with the potential of reaching 'Day Zero', a point at which water supplies run out. The text highlights a perception issue among people who believe water is abundant and available at the turn of a tap. The narrative stresses the urgent need for radical changes in water usage, with a focus on the critical impact of agricultural and industrial practices on water consumption. The discussion sets a timeline, mentioning that by the year 2040, many of these problems will intensify if current trends continue.
• 15:00 - 20:00: Corporate Involvement and Privatization of Water The chapter titled 'Corporate Involvement and Privatization of Water' discusses the emerging global water crisis, highlighting a future where the majority of the world will struggle to meet water demand annually. The narrative delves into the critical point at which humanity is on the brink of losing control over water management. It stresses the irreplaceable nature of water, emphasizing the rapid fatality associated with its scarcity. The chapter questions the socio-economic constructs that have led to this dire shortage of the planet's most crucial resource, and speculates on the potential configuration of the world as this crisis intensifies.
• 20:00 - 25:00: Desalination and Future Solutions This chapter explores the concept of water as a precious commodity, with a focus on desalination as a future solution. It emphasizes the significance of water infrastructure designed by humans to mitigate the challenges posed by nature. The narrative discusses the varying perspectives of investors, who see clean water as valuable as 'liquid gold,' and the societal movement to protect and value water resources. The dialogue raises a thought-provoking question about the potential risks of taking water for granted, similar to how we view air.
• 25:00 - 30:30: Balancing Water Value and Accessibility The chapter discusses the abundance of water on Earth, emphasizing that while there is a vast amount of water available, only a small fraction is accessible for human use. 97% of Earth's water is salty and 2% is trapped in polar ice, leaving just 1% available for human consumption and survival.

Explained | World's Water Crisis | FULL EPISODE | Netflix Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [narrator] Turn on a faucet and clean water rushes out, as much as we want, anytime we want. It's easy to forget that the quest for this has been one of the defining struggles of human history. Civilizations that harnessed water, thrived. The ones that failed... fell. Today, seven in ten people on Earth can count on having running water in their homes. [man] The water flows from the risers to connecting mains,
• 00:30 - 01:00 and finally through service connections into each building on the street. [narrator] At least, so they think. Cape Town. It could become the first major city in the world to run out of water. Cape Town, South Africa, is inching closer now to Day Zero. Just 92 days away from having to shut off most water taps because of a severe drought. [narrator] Cape Town is the first major city in the world to plan to indefinitely shut off its water supply. Four million people would stop getting running water.
• 01:00 - 01:30 They'd get water rations, and they'd need to line up at city water stations to get it. And it's not just Cape Town. São Paulo, Melbourne, Jakarta, London, Beijing, Istanbul, Tokyo, Bangalore, Barcelona and Mexico City will all face their own Day Zero in the next few decades, unless their water use radically changes. There are perceptions that it is there in bountiful amounts and everyone has access to it because you can turn a tap, and that's a big problem. [narrator] In fact, by 2040
• 01:30 - 02:00 most of the world won't have enough water to meet demand year-round. We're facing a global water crisis and it's getting worse. We're at a real inflection point where, if we're not careful, we may actually get out ahead of our ability to manage it. [narrator] There's no substitute for water. Each of us will die in just a few days without it. How have we built a world where we don't have enough of its most valuable resource? And as this crisis grows, what will the new world look like?
• 02:00 - 02:30 [man] Waterways, built by the people to free the land of the tyranny of nature. For some investors, what they see in this glass is liquid gold. Clean water. Now. [crowd chants] -[in Spanish] In defense of water. -[man 2] Water becomes a commodity. It takes on new value. People claim it, haul it, treasure it. [man 3] Dare we take our water supply for granted as we do the air we breathe?
• 02:30 - 03:00 [narrator] Earth is the blue planet. There's no shortage of water. We have 326 million trillion gallons of it. Always have, always will. Water may freeze into ice or evaporate into air, but it doesn't leave our planet. If you sucked up all the water on Earth, it would fit into this sphere. But 97% of it is salty and 2% is trapped in ice at the poles, so all of humankind relies on just 1% of that water to survive. When people talk about running out of water,
• 03:00 - 03:30 what they really mean is, do they have access to that very small percentage? [narrator] And the answer depends a lot on where you live. Kuwait is one of the poorest countries in terms of water per capita, and Canada, one of the richest, doesn't have twice as much or even ten times as much. It has 10,000 times as much. But it also matters where the water is. That 1% of Earth's water that we all rely on, most of it is underground and really difficult and expensive to get to,
• 03:30 - 04:00 so humans have mostly settled close to surface water, like rivers and lakes. Around 90% of the world's population lives less than ten kilometers from a freshwater source. Hundreds of years ago, when the Aztecs settled on what is now Mexico City, they saw a giant lake. These are the last remnants of the canals they made. When the Spanish came in the 16th century, one soldier marveled at the Aztec city rising from the water that seemed like an enchanted vision.
• 04:00 - 04:30 But then the Spanish started draining the lake, and over the next few centuries that space was filled by people. Like in most places, surface water in Mexico was treated as a public resource, key to development. And since 1950, Mexico City's population has exploded. It's now home to 22 million people. I would say some of the most important threats for Mexico City are related to water. [narrator] Mexico City gets more rain than notoriously rainy London.
• 04:30 - 05:00 But the lakes that would have collected that water are long gone, so the city floods. But they still need to pipe in most of their water from other parts of Mexico. Or they pump it from underground. We've gotten a lot better at accessing groundwater. But there's a catch. Those water deposits, called aquifers, have accumulated over millennia and they'll take millennia to fill back up. Groundwater is sort of like the savings account,
• 05:00 - 05:30 which it's fine to draw on sometimes, especially when you have a drought. [narrator] That's not what Mexico City's been doing. We take out from the local aquifer around 50% of our water supply. That means that probably we'll lose half of our supply of water in the next 30-50 years. [narrator] Sucking up that groundwater has another side effect. It compresses the soil. Mexico City is literally sinking. In some places, as much as nine inches a year. NASA satellite data shows aquifers in northern India
• 05:30 - 06:00 decreasing by 29 trillion gallons in just a decade. There are simply more people on Earth consuming more water. This century, water consumption has increased sevenfold. And the rain and snow that we count on to water crops and refill lakes and rivers is getting less reliable. [Otto] Climate change is making available water much more erratic. We're seeing areas around the world that are experiencing much more extended dry periods. [narrator] But the problem isn't just that there's more people on Earth using water,
• 06:00 - 06:30 it's how we're using water. Humans need to drink almost a gallon of water per day. Brushing your teeth, washing your hands typically uses about a gallon. [flushes] There goes three gallons. But the drinking, washing and toilet flushing of every person on Earth only accounts for 8% of our freshwater use each year. Most of the water goes to agriculture and industry, and into the food and products we use.
• 06:30 - 07:00 Let's take a bottle of Coca-Cola. 98% of the water in that bottle is not what you see in that bottle. 98% of the water is actually embedded in all the ingredients that were grown to make that bottle of Coca-Cola. [narrator] 74 liters of water goes into every glass of beer. A cup of coffee? 130 liters. Each of your cotton shirts - 2,500 liters. But nothing has as much embedded water as meat. Alfalfa is a common ingredient in cattle feed, and growing a kilogram of it takes 510 liters of water.
• 07:00 - 07:30 An average cow consumes about 12 kilograms of feed a day. Divided up, just one quarter-pound hamburger takes around 1,650 liters of water to produce. The world is eating more and more like Americans. Higher calorie diets with more meat. But everyone can't eat like Americans. There actually isn't enough water in the world. Water doesn't abide by some of the basic rules of capitalism. Farmers hardly pay anything for it.
• 07:30 - 08:00 So the true cost of water doesn't end up in the cost of the burger. Which is why those fast food places can offer you bargain burgers. [man 1] How can it be 99 cents? [man 2] For only 2.99. You heard right: 2.99. [narrator] In most places in the world, water is treated and priced like there will always be enough of it. So we end up using it in absurdly wasteful ways. Arid Southern California uses over two trillion gallons of water a year to grow alfalfa, which they get from the Colorado River,
• 08:00 - 08:30 hundreds of miles away. The amount they pay for it doesn't even cover the cost of delivery. Just a fraction of the water used by South Africa's wine industry would be enough for Cape Town's taps. India and China both grow their most water-intensive crops in some of their driest regions. But as water gets more scarce, that may change. The bank Goldman Sachs predicted that water would be the petroleum of the 21st century.
• 08:30 - 09:00 And private interests, like hedge funds, have started buying up water, prompting fears that they'll take advantage of scarcity to turn a profit. And if that sounds like a villain's plot in a James Bond movie, that's because it was. As of this moment, my organization owns more than 60% of Bolivia's water supply. This contract states that your new government... will use us as utilities provider. [narrator] But putting a higher price on water might have benefits.
• 09:00 - 09:30 The benefit of valuing water as we should and sending, you know, a price signal, is that we wouldn't be growing alfalfa in the desert. [narrator] Remember that point. It'll be important later. We wouldn't be growing crops that don't make sense in really arid places. Because the economics of it wouldn't make sense. [narrator] And 95% of the irrigated farmland in the world probably wouldn't use the most inefficient irrigation method... just flooding the fields.
• 09:30 - 10:00 And if water had a higher price, governments might decide it's worth the money to repair our water infrastructure. [Kramer] We are not investing the financial resources needed to make a good maintenance of the system. One critical result of this is that we have 42% of leakages in the water network. [narrator] Mexico City, which is facing an existential water crisis, loses close to half of its drinking water to leaky pipes.
• 10:00 - 10:30 We value water so little, we dump two million tons of sewage and agricultural and industrial waste into it every day. There's no sense of value to what is really an incredibly invaluable resource in water. But then when we run out, we find what the cost of water truly is. [yelling] [speaking Spanish] [narrator] In 2017, the city of Mexicali finalized a deal with Constellation Brands,
• 10:30 - 11:00 the maker of Modelo and Corona beers, to construct a brewery. It would be the biggest investment the region had seen in years, creating 750 permanent jobs. And, in exchange, the brewery was guaranteed a lot of water. But Mexicali doesn't have a lot of water to spare. Its main water source is the Colorado River, which starts in Colorado, in the U.S. Fed by melting snow in the Rocky Mountains,
• 11:00 - 11:30 warmer temperatures in recent years have meant less snow, which means less river. You can tell how much less by that big bathtub ring. The river flows south, quenching a few American cities along the way, like Denver, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Los Angeles. Oh, and almost six million acres of farmland. By the time the Colorado River reaches Mexicali, it looks like this. [man, in Spanish] It's been a long time since we've had enough water.
• 11:30 - 12:00 If the brewery settles in and starts producing, in a few years, we'll run out of underground water. [in Spanish] The farmers are the ones who get the worst of it. [in Spanish] They need 20 million cubic meters per year. If we compare that to, say, cities such as Ensenada, which need nine million cubic meters, it's more than double. More than double of a city. [narrator] The more scarce water gets, more access to it becomes a competition,
• 12:00 - 12:30 with winners and losers, often with governments picking. In July 2018, the federal government of Mexico issued a decree making it easier for businesses like Constellation Brands to extract surface water all around the country. [in Spanish] We see this as a stick-up. It's also a warning not only for the Mexican people but the entire world. We know that many other parts of the world
• 12:30 - 13:00 are fighting against these privatization projects that line the companies' pockets. [narrator] In January 2018, protesters tried to physically block the construction of the brewery's aqueduct. [in Spanish] The entire group of policemen came through that road in the front. They came here with their protective shields, in a single file. She's the lady that shows up in the video holding a pipe.
• 13:00 - 13:30 [in Spanish] But we have to defend our water. Because it's a vital liquid. It's the most important thing we have right now. [narrator] Water scarcity is increasingly driving violent conflict around the world. My personal experiences of where this has been dire have been in northeast Nigeria. As we saw over the years of the drying up of Lake Chad so did livelihoods dry up. And that tension really did erupt in a way in which governments could no longer contain it.
• 13:30 - 14:00 [narrator] Water scarcity is at the heart of the ongoing conflict in Darfur which, since 2003, has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. And some analysts say the Syrian civil war was caused in large part by a severe drought in 2006. As tensions rise over freshwater, governments are increasingly eyeing an idea that was once far-fetched. Creating more of it. Desalination of ocean water has more than doubled over the last decade
• 14:00 - 14:30 but the amount we make a year still adds up to less than 1% of the water we use. We've been waiting for the holy grail of breakthrough in how expensive it is to desalinate water, that is to take ocean or brackish water that has a lot of salts in it, from underground, and treat it to drinking-water standards. That takes a lot of money and it takes a huge amount of energy right now. [narrator] That would make more sense if water was more valuable. But that would also mean the water in everything would cost more.
• 14:30 - 15:00 The price of consumer goods would skyrocket. Some industries might collapse. Companies like Constellation Brands might make different decisions about where they set up their operations. Because remember... The benefit of valuing water as we should and sending, you know, a price signal, is that we wouldn't be growing alfalfa in the desert. [narrator] Growing cattle feed in the desert. That's what the Mena family does. And if water suddenly became the next petroleum, they'd be out of a living, too.
• 15:00 - 15:30 The thing is, water isn't like petroleum. Or any other commodity on Earth, for that matter. Because without water, we die. In 2010, the UN recognized access to water and sanitation as a human right. And that's the challenge of our water crisis. How are you supposed to value an invaluable resource while ensuring everybody has it? When the price of water is raised, to fix pipes or encourage conservation, it has the greatest impact on the poor.
• 15:30 - 16:00 Sydney water is pushing for a 15% hike over four years, putting more pressure on family budgets. This drive for water conservation, water saving, is now a burden that poor people must carry. Living on a fixed income, I cannot afford any of this. [narrator] It might be that we don't end up treating all water equally. We know that there is a certain percentage of water, it's around 60 liters per day per person,
• 16:00 - 16:30 that is associated with human rights issues, but above that, people should pay for water. [narrator] In 2017, Philadelphia started experimenting with tying water prices to income. We need to price it in such a way that we protect basic human needs. [narrator] The fact that we all need water makes this crisis exceptionally hard. But it can also inspire people to act in exceptional ways to solve it.
• 16:30 - 17:00 Cape Town's Day Zero was first scheduled for March 18. But then people started conserving. The water restrictions are clearly having some effect. Day Zero has been pushed back by a month. [woman] Cape Town announced it pushed back Day Zero until July 9th. Authorities expect Day Zero, as it's been dubbed, to take place at the end of August instead of July. Now, that's since been pushed back to next year, thanks to extraordinary efforts of residents and authorities. [narrator] By early 2018, the city's water consumption
• 17:00 - 17:30 was less than half what it had been just four years earlier, and the Day Zero countdown clock was paused indefinitely. Not enough action was taken until they started talking about Day Zero. That really got people's attention. And it was remarkable, between the time that the city started to talk about Day Zero and, a month later, how much people cut back their water use. And it goes to show what we can do. [narrator] But Cape Town also got lucky. It rained.
• 17:30 - 18:00 The trick is recognizing how valuable water is before there isn't enough of it, and remembering that our fates are tied to what rushes out of our taps. [Kramer] Mexico City was founded within a lake. But today our relation with water is very distant. It's very important to recover our historical consciousness with water. There are many actions individuals can take in order to save water,
• 18:00 - 18:30 but also to be aware that water has a value.