Weekdays at 8:37 a.m. (9:07 NT)
Watershed looks at the many ways that water flows through everything we do and how a simple twist of the tap influences global politics, international economics and the ecology of the entire planet.
Wednesday May 20, 2009: Mexico Water Shortage
It is one of the most populated cities in the world, and if things don't improve fast, Mexico City will become one of thirstiest. Throw in Swine Flu and you have city drowning in a sea of trouble.
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The Yamuna River in northern India is much more than a river. In the Hindu religion, it is a she and she is a goddess. Every year, Hindu pilgrims take a holy dip into Goddess Yamuna to cleanse themselves of a lifetime of sin but when The Current's contributor Kennedy Jawoko went for a look, he found that the goddess could use some cleaning up.
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There is a certain kind of person who is a little different from the rest of us. They exist on land, like the rest of us but they live ... thrive in the water. The Current's Chris Wodskou is not one of those people. But he wanted to find out how the minds and bodies of elite athletes in aquatic sports mesh in the water. Chris Wodskou's documentary is called Water Babies.
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Monday April 6 , 2009: Groundwater Systems
To many Canadians, groundwater is a mysterious and poorly understood thing. As a country, we aren't nearly as well informed about this precious and hidden resource as we should be. And as conflicts over water become more common, that's becoming a problem. CBC's Louise Elliott prepared a documentary called, What Lies Beneath.
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Across India, hundreds of millions of people don't have access to a toilet, or anything connected to a sewer system. For Bindeshwar Pathak, a toilet isn't just a toilet. It's a tool for social change. He's a sociologist and the founder of the Sulabh Sanitation Movement ... a group that has been credited with improving sanitation, reducing the incidence of disease and restoring dignity to countless people.
Bindeshwar Pathak is the founder of the Sulabh Sanitation Movement. He will receive the Stockholm Water Prize at a ceremony in Stockholm in August.
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Hydro Quebec plays the "green" card as it promotes massive new dam projects. Our Watershed series dips into the greenwashing electricity.
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Friday March 20, 2009: A Special World Water Day Edition of The Current
Giller Award winning novelist Joseph Boyden was our Friday Host. With the fifth World Water Forum taking place in Istanbul we take a look at global water issues.
Monday March 09, 2009: Boutros Boutros-Ghali
Last week, The Current was in Jerusalem looking at the politics of water throughout the Middle East. Among other things, we heard about the ways that water has fueled both cooperation and animosity between Israelis and Palestinians.
Boutros Boutros-Ghali has spent much of his life working on global water issues and trying to bring peace to the region. He was the United Nations Secretary General from 1992 to 1996. Before that, he spent 15 years as a key player in the Egyptian Government -- as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister. Boutros Boutros-Ghali joined us from Paris.
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Wednesday March 04, 2009: Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis
It has been said that we know more about outer space than we do about the depths of our own ocean. This despite the fact that the ocean is by far the largest zone of life in the Earth's biosphere. Scientists are still discovering previously unimagined forms of life in the ocean but they're also finding cause for concern. Today on the Current, we probed the ocean's depths and looked at how human activity is changing the very chemistry and physics of our oceans.
Alanna Mitchell is an environmental journalist. She spent two-and-a-half years tracking the work of our top ocean scientists on thirteen different voyages all over the world. The result is her new book, Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis.
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The Sea of Galilee is shrinking rapidly. So Israeli authorities are desperate to find new sources of water for the country's seven million inhabitants. And one of the more promising options is desalination ... the process of removing the salt from seawater. We get a tour of a desalination plant and debate the process.
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Anna Maria takes a trip down the historic Jordan River. A river that has long shaped the political and spiritual geography of the Middle East. Nearly every country in the region - from Syria and Lebanon to Israel and Jordan - lays claims to its waters.
But now the river's ebb and flow - its very existence - is in question. Due to massive diversions, growing demand and years of drought, the Lower Jordan has been reduced to a trickle. And the Dead Sea into which it flows is drying up.
We examined how the river has been shaped by the politics and history of the region in this documentary by Kristin Nelson called, A River Jordan.
Click here to view some photo's from this documentary from CBC News Online
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Fukin Valley Documentary
Wadi Fukin is a Palestinian farming village in The Fukin Valley. In some ways, The Fukin Valley presents a hopeful vision for how water might actually help Israelis and Palestinians learn to live together cooperatively. But even here, water issues threaten the region's future and provide an ever-present reminder of the conflicts of the past.
Israeli Water Expert
An Israeli and a Palestinian are working together to protect a unique system of water springs in the Fukin Valley. They live in two towns on opposite sides of the so-called "Green Line" that marks Israel's 1967 border. And what Israel calls its separation barrier -- and what Palestinians call a wall -- will soon divide them.
Martin Sherman was a ministerial advisor in the government of Yitzhak Shamir in the early 1990s. He also served for seven years in a variety of roles related to national defense. He now teaches political science at Tel Aviv University and he was in Jerusalem.
Palestinian Water Authority
For a very different view on what the water challenges are in the region, we were joined by Dr. Shaddad Attili. He is head of the Palestinian Water Authority. He was in Ramallah.
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The town of Canso sits on the eastern tip of Nova Scotia ... right at the edge of the mainland, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. It's the oldest fishing community in mainland North America. And for more than four centuries, the ocean and its bounty sustained the community. Then the fishery collapsed in the early 1990s. Canso has never recovered and the town's residents have a big decision to make about their future.
The CBC's Wendy Martin from Sydney, Nova Scotia prepared a documentary called On The Edge.
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In the Pakistani city of Karachi, finding a glass of clean drinking water can be an enormous struggle. Water shortages and a lack of basic infrastructure have created an underground economy based on theft and corruption. Freelance broadcaster Naheed Mustafa has prepared a documentary about Karachi's water woes called The Water Merchants.
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Tuesday January 06, 2009: The Threatening Sea
Australia's problems with a decade-long drought stand in stark contrast to what the people of Vanuatu face. They have too much water. Vanuatu is a nation of 83 islands in the South Pacific ... about a three hour plane ride from Sydney. A line of lush vegetation along the coast circles volcanic ridges and uplands on most of the islands. And it's in that ring of green -- close to the ocean -- where most people live. But the sea levels are rising, the islands are sinking ... And the future for the people of Vanuatu looks bleak.
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Here are some pictures from Kathleen Goldhar's documentary, "The Threatening Sea":
Monday January 05, 2009: Australia Talk Tape
There is no other place on earth where a shortage of water is more of an immediate threat than Australia. For ten years now, Australians have been living with a drought ... the longest drought on record and one that is changing the face of politics, business and of course, farming.
The Current producer Kathleen Goldhar travelled to Australia to see how so many years of drought have changed things for all sorts of people.
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Monday January 05, 2009: Just Add Water
As part of our Watershed series, Kathleen Goldhar, a producer with The Current joined Anna Maria in our studio with her documentary, Just Add Water.
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Tuesday December 16 , 2008: Virtual Water
Ever think about how much water you use? The long hot showers after a workout ... brushing your teeth, making coffee, watering the garden, flushing the toilet. All of those things are part of your water footprint. But they're just a small part.
Sisters, Tina and Kim Pittaway are freelance journalists and water users and their documentary is called Watery Road to Hell.
If you're interested in learning more about your water footprint, you can check out the Water Footprint Network's website at www.waterfootprint.org.
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Alberta's oil sands industry isn't booming quite as loudly these days but it's still a significant part of the Canadian economy. And yet, for all the energy and wealth the oil sands industry produces, it generates a staggering amount of waste. The problem is that no one knows what to do with all this waste ... something the industry openly admits.
As part of our on-going series on water issues , we wanted to search for a solution. Our guide is Erik Denison. He's a reporter with CBC Radio in Edmonton.
Click here to view the Photo Gallery: Alberta's oil sands
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Tuesday October 28, 2008: Hurricane in a Rowboat
Julie Angus of Courtenay, British Columbia - a molecular biologist by training - and her fellow adventurer and future husband, Colin Angus - took their row boat from Lisbon, Portugal to Limon, Costa Rica during the fall and winter of 2005, during the worst hurricane season in history.
Angus joined Anna Maria in our Toronto studio to discuss her adventure and her new book, Rowboat in a Hurricane: My Amazing Journey Across a Changing Atlantic Ocean.
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Wednesday October 30, 2008 : The Athabasca River
The Athabasca River is the lifeblood of tar sands activity because its waters are what allows for the separation of the bitumen from the sand and then being processed into oil. That process is having a huge effect on the river and Andrew Nikiforuk joined us to tell us about it.
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Wednesday October 1, 2008: Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
In part two of this day's show, Anna Maria Tremonti interviewed David Collyer, the President of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. A portion of the conversation touched upon the water surrounding the Alberta Tar Sands, and how one has an effect on the other. Though it is unofficially a part of our Watershed series, this discussion compliments our aim for the series.
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Here are some scenes from Dick Miller's documentary, The Well.
Local livestock drinking from the
Addis Ababa's Well 
Carrying Water 
Outside Addis Ababa 
Adisu's Laundry 
Making Dung Pies
Water Markets - Part Two: Water Panel - Part Three:
(From left to right) Anna Maria Tremonti, Chris Wodskou, Danielle Droitsch, and Melissa from Inside Out Rafting outside Cochrane, Alberta.
Anna Maria Tremonti and Jim Webber, the general manager of the Western general manager of the Western Irrigation District, at the Secondary 'A' Canal in Strathmore, Alberta.
Current Producer, Chris Wodskou, collecting water in the Bow River in Canmore, Alberta.
Anna Maria Tremonti and Shawn Marshall in Bow Lake.
Background: What is left of the Bow Glacier.
Anna Maria Tremonti, Chris Wodskou, and Daniell Droitsch.
Anna Maria Tremonti and Bob Sandford at the Bow River in Canmore, Alberta.
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