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UN Video library: Asia

2011

Bangladesh: Traces of Poison in Water
UN in Action, December 2011
Place: Bangladesh
Duration: 6min48sec
In 1993, Bangladesh found its main source of fresh water tainted with naturally occurring arsenic posing a public health risk to millions. Since then, the country has partnered with the World Bank and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to introduce isotope hydrology techniques to locate safe sources of water.

Dam Safety in Central Asia
UN in Action, September 2011
Place: Central Asia
Duration: 4min24sec
Aging dams are a potential threat to millions living in flood-prone urban areas in Central Asia. A special project, supported by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, is underway to improve monitoring and maintenance of the Soviet-era dams.

India's Iceman
UNTV 21st Century, 2011
Place: India
Duration: 8min52sec
Climate change is threatening the future of millions of people. But high up in the Himalayas, a man known as The Ice Man, is trying to do what nature no longer can - and give his community a chance of survival – by building artificial glaciers.

2010

Bhutan: Tsunami from the Sky
UNTV 21st Century
Place: Bhutan
Duration: 14min25sec
In Bhutan, Himalayan glaciers are melting due to climate change, with lakes forming within the glaciers. Some of these glacier lakes are in imminent danger of bursting. This documentary explores the possible impacts on local livelihoods and adaptation measures being carried out in the region.

Sink or Swim
United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR)
Place: Vietnam
Duration: 3min02sec
This video focuses on the disaster-prone and vulnerable country of Vietnam, and the role of mangroves in providing natural coastal protection. An overarching message is that humans must work with nature to reduce vulnerability to the effects of climate change and extreme events.

Sri Lanka: cleansing toxic water
UNTV, 21th Century
Place: Sri Lanka
Duration: 5min46sec
The excessive use of agriculture pesticides and chemical fertilizers rendered the water on the West coast of Sri Lanka unsafe to drink, threatening the health of the people of the region. A low-cost solution has been applied to face such environmental disaster: letting trees grow in the concerned areas so that the water could pass through a dense net of roots that filters it. Filtering the water, in combination with an organic agriculture will help restoring the natural balance of the ecosystem in the long run.

2009

At a Glance: Syrian Arab Republic
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
Place: Syria
Duration: 1min57sec
In Syria, droughts are causing crop failure and reduced grazing pastures. Drought and climate change has depleted the Al Assi river in Salamieh, and communities now depend on wells for their water supply. This video shows how a new water station unit, partly funded by UNICEF, cleans the water which contains dangerous levels of sulphur, ensuring a clean, safe water supply.

(The) Gathering Storm - Asia: Chapter 9 Melting Glaciers
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Place: Nepal
Duration: 3min33sec
Part of a series exploring the human cost of climate change in Asia, this video sees a young well-educated Sherpa take a journey back to his ancestral village in the Himalayas, to see for himself the problems his people face as a consequence of global warming.

(The) Gathering Storm - Asia: Chapter 11 Swapping Crops
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Place: Nepal
Duration: 3min22sec
Part of a series exploring the human cost of climate change in Asia, this video sees farmers in Nepal being forced to give up growing traditional crops due to irregular rainfall patterns and declining yields.

(The) Gathering Storm - Asia: Chapter 13 Cambodia's Lake
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Place: Cambodia
Duration: 3min01sec
Part of a series exploring the human cost of climate change in Asia, this chapter focuses on Tonle Sap lake in central Cambodia. The lake used to be a fisherman's heaven, but growing population pressures, the advent of commercial fishing, and the onset of climate change have left the fishermen who live in beautiful floating villages on the lake shore in dire straits.

(The) Gathering Storm - Asia: Chapter 14 Boat Schools
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Place: Bangladesh
Duration: 3min02sec
Part of a series exploring the human cost of climate change in Asia, this video takes a closer look at Bangladesh, one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world where tens of millions of people are at risk from cyclones and floods. Schools often close because of flooding, which means that children miss out on their education. An innovative project - the floating education system - is helping communities adapt to climate change by providing schooling on boats.

(The) Gathering Storm - Asia: Chapter 15 Floating Gardens
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Place: Bangladesh
Duration: 2min39sec
Part of a series exploring the human cost of climate change in Asia, this video shows how the ancient practice of floating gardens - beds of straw and water hyacinths on which crops are grown - is making a comeback in the face of increased floods in Bangladesh.

Mekong: Watch that River!
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Place: South-East Asia
Duration: 7min40sec
This film captures the highlights of a 2008 study, Vulnerability Assessment of Freshwater Resources to Environmental Change, carried out by researchers at the Asian Institute Technology (AIT) for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). South East Asia's largest river, the Mekong, has withstood decades of pressure from rising human numbers, growing industrial activity and more demands for water and food. But scientists now caution that climate change could upset this balance in the coming years and decades. At risk are water, food and jobs for 65 million people living in Mekong River Basin. To minimise impact, the six Mekong countries need to better plan and coordinate how they share the river's resources and their impact on its flow.

(The) Gathering Storm - Asia: Chapter 12 Vietnam's Mangrove
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Place: Vietnam
Duration: 4min05sec
This film highlights the threat to Vietnam's coastal mangrove forests.

Yemen: Biodiversity and Livelihood
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Place: Yemen
Duration: 3min
In Yemen, UNDP worked with local people and the Government in planning for the rehabilitation of a valuable and fragile ecosystem, the Aden Wetlands. Along with promoting new environmental legislation as well as awareness of the Wetlands importance in Yemen's' economy and environment, the project focused on sustainable livelihoods for the people who live there. For example, the project revived indigenous practices such as soap, vinegar and seed button production. This video describes the project.

Asia's Sanitation Challenge
Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Place: Asia
Duration: 2min37sec
Many of Asia's poorest people live in unhealthy, squalid conditions, with no clean water or sanitation access. Families cannot escape poverty without water and hygiene infrastructure.

Bringing proper sanitation to rural Afghanistan
High quality version
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
Place: Afghanistan
Duration : 1min27sec
This video shows how UNICEF and its partners work together to ensure that Afghan children have access to clean water and sanitation.

(The) story of Younus
World Bank Water and Sanitation Program (WSP)
Duration: 5min22sec
This short animated movie tells the story of Younus, who starts developing a working sanitation market when he loses his job as a teacher in Pakistan. He is asked to travel to other villages to help them become Open Defecation Free areas.

Towards clean cities: Addressing sanitation in urban India
World Bank Water and Sanitation Program (WSP)
Place: India
Duration: 8min02sec
This video advocates the need for a holistic approach to urban sanitation: instead of focusing on fragmented approaches to the sanitation problem in urban areas, an approach which looks at creating open defecation free cities.

(The) Last Kankan of Nakhchivan
UNTV 21st Century
Place: Azerbaijan
Duration: 9min04sec
Water scarcity has become one of our greatest challenges. In less than twenty years, nearly two billion people could face water shortages. But one country - Azerbaijan - which sits between Europe and Western Asia - has come up with an ingenious solution to its water crisis.

Clean Freshwater comes to the high mountain villages in Nepal
UNTV: UN in Action
Place: Nepal
Duration: 2min46sec
Billions of people in the world still live without basic and easy access to clean water. In the Serachaur Village in western Nepal women had to walk several kilometres every day to fetch water. A new water supply and sanitation programme backed by the World Bank is reaching thousands of rural Nepalese and considerably improving their lives.

Holy Water: A message of peace and entrepreneurship
UN Multimedia
Place: Jordan
Duration: 4min05sec
For UNIDO-trained entrepreneur Mohammed shomali, "holy water" from the Jordan is more than a business idea – it is a symbol of peace. His "holy water" is bottled at Bethany-beyond-the Jordan, where theologians and archaeologists believe Jesus was baptized, and where the prophets of the Old and New Testament and the Koran once dwelled.

2008

Rainwater harvest in Indonesia
UNTV: UN in Action
Place: Indonesia
Duration: 2min53sec
A project sponsored by UNICEF is helping coastal communities in Indonesia that have long suffered with poor access to freshwater. A simple rainwater harvesting setup can provide for a family's water needs for most of the year.

Adapting to Climate Change in Bangladesh
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
Place: Bangladesh
Duration: 5min22sec
Bangladesh is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world. With nearly 200 major natural disasters since 1971, the population is struggling to cope with the impact of climate change on their food security. Impacts also include increasing floods and drought. This video shows how FAO projects are helping farmers adapt to the new challenges, with improved farming systems and new technologies, and with the innovative 'Climate Field School' project.

Ancestral Waters: Philippine Indigenous Group Asserts Right to Sea and Lakes
UNTV 21st Century
Place: Philippines
Duration: 8min04sec
Many of the world's 370 million indigenous people face a difficult struggle to claim their ancestral territories. Their struggle is even harder when these places aren't found on land, but on water. Yet some tribes are now winning recognition of their right to ancestral waters thanks to a pioneering group in the Philippines: the Tagbanua people of Coron Island.

2007

Easy like Water
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Place: Bangladesh
Duration: 4min33sec
This video focuses on the implications of climate change for Bangladesh. Solar-powered boat-schools are turning the front lines of climate change into a community of learning. As the water steals the land, one man's vision is re-casting the rising rivers as channels of communication and transforming lives.

Freshwater under Threat South Asia: Crowded Land, Drying Rivers
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Place: South Asia
Duration: 9min02sec
Rising temperatures are fast melting glaciers in the Himalayas, the origin of major rivers flowing across the Indian subcontinent. Reduced river flow can upset water balance for millions. Meanwhile, rapidly swelling glacial lakes can trigger flash floods. This video is based on the UNEP's Vulnerability Assessment of Freshwater Resources to Environmental Change report series.

Melting Mountains in Nepal
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Place: Nepal
Duration: 2min57sec
At the Copenhagen climate negotiations, Deepak Bohara, Minister of Forest and Soil Conservation in Nepal, highlights the catastrophic impacts of melting glaciers and snow in Nepal's mountains, and talks about mitigation efforts in the country.
 

Water shortage in Jordan
UNTV: UN in Action
Place: Jordan
Duration: 3min15sec
Farmers in Jordan are receiving support from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) as the country faces continuing water shortages due to inadequate rainfall and arid climate. Collecting rainwater by using cisterns and building dams to control the flow of water are some of the initiatives encouraged by IFAD to keep farmers on the land.

Troubled Waters
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Place: Jordan
Duration: 3min08sec
This video shows an IFAD-supported project in the south of Jordan that helps poor farmers better manage soil and water resources in one of the world's top ten water-poor countries.