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UN Video library: Water quality

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.

Africa's Lake Victoria: Turning the Tide
UNTV 21st Century, 2011
Place: Lake Victoria
Duration: 6min48sec
The struggle to access clean water and basic sanitation is intensifying as the global population ratchets up by the billion. Overcrowded makeshift settlements are springing up along the world's lakes and seas at a staggering pace, putting the health of millions under threat. This video takes you to Africa's Lake Victoria where one community is turning the tide on this alarming trend.

Argentina: Dreaming of a Clean River
UNTV 21st Century
Place: Argentina
Duration: 6min27sec
One of the world's most polluted rivers flows through Argentina's capital Buenos Aires and threatens the health of the city's poorest people. Now, one determined nine-year-old girl and her tenacious mother have decided enough is enough.

2010

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.

2006

Beyond scarcity: power, poverty and the global water crisis
UNDP
Place: Nairobi, Kenya
Duration: 5min21sec
Kevin Watkins, Director of the UNDP Human Development Report (2006) presents the HDR of 2006, illustrating the state of art of some areas of Nairobi. The presence of a huge toilet en plein air made of a mix of plastic trashes and human excrements menaces the safeness of the water reaching the residential areas around it. The Report demonstrates how such contamination underlines the inevitable link between access to safe water, sanitation, human dignity and education of children.