With its imposing sandstone mountains, the magnificent desert of Wadi Rum in southern Jordan is no stranger to the movie world. Once the actual base of TE Lawrence, the location was put on the silver screen in David Lean’s epic Lawrence of Arabia. But cutting through the hypnotic grandeur of the place, Pavel Borecký’s absorbing documentary reveals the large-scale exploitation of the desert’s water reserve: an underground aquifer known as the Disi, which also runs under neighbouring Saudi Arabia.
Since the 1960s when water pipelines were installed in the region, technology has been an enemy to the local indigenous farmers. Much of the water from the Disi is pumped out to larger cities such as Aqaba and Amman, or to industrialised farms that export to foreign countries, so the farmers’ access to it has become severely restricted. Moreover, Jordan is one of the most water-scarce countries in the world, and has a serious problem with non-renewable aquifers, meaning that once the water is taken out of the Disi, it cannot be replenished. And with the current speed of climate change and reduced rainfall, there is a real danger that the it will one day run dry.
Moving away from the talking-head style employed by many environmental justice documentaries, Living Water has an interesting mix of intimate interviews and wordless, meditative footage of the Wadi Rum set to an electronic score with Middle Eastern influences. It results in some interesting visual sequences, though it does occasionally dilute the information being offered. While the ongoing, systemic depletion of natural resources is adequately explained, for those unfamiliar with the region, it may be a challenge to glean the full historical context.
• Living Water is available on 12 August on True Story.
