“The Power of the Valves”: from master thesis to short film
After graduating from IHE Delft MSc in Water Management and Governance, Helen Barbosa turned her thesis into a short film to promote a conversation on uneven water distributions in her country, Cabo Verde, and to find allies to make tangible changes.
I’ve often been asked why I am making a short film — what point I am trying to make. My answer is simple: I want to get people thinking, feeling, and acting. Whether it is local actors in urban water management or the general public, we need to talk about water in a way that inspires solutions. And film is the perfect medium to build this conversation. More than just a short film, this project is personal. Growing up in the uptown part of Praia City, water was a rare luxury in my house. My sister and I would wake up early—even on weekends—just to trek across the neighborhood, buckets in hand, hoping to collect water before it ran dry. I remember standing by the water trucks, getting soaked by the cold leftover water, while other kids were still in bed or watching cartoons. Those childhood memories gave me my first real experience of what water scarcity feels like. It wasn’t just about not having enough water; it was about the uncertainty, the feeling that you couldn’t afford to have it. Even with an in-house connection decades later, we never knew whether water would come that day.
Fast forward to 2016, when I started working for a water utility company, and I began questioning the decisions that went into distributing water. Why did some houses get water, while others — like mine — were always left waiting? When I had the chance to pursue my MSc thesis at IHE Delft, I returned to Cabo Verde to study urban water governance, hoping to answer some of these lingering questions. I learned how water was distributed across the city and why shortages persisted in certain areas. But even with all the data and knowledge I gathered, I felt the need to share these insights in a way that wasn’t just for academics. I realized the language I was using in my MSc thesis was mostly accessible to scholars, leaving laypersons out. But water issues affect all of us. I knew that if I wanted to engage with my community truly, I needed to break down the barriers of academic jargon and tell a story that people would feel, not just read — something everyone could connect with. That’s how the idea of making a short film was born. A film produced by young local filmmakers in Praia, Cabo Verde — led by Domingos Barros — designed to speak to both water policymakers and ordinary people in a language we all understand.
This idea slowly grew when I met Linda Lilienfeld, founder of the film festival “Let’s talk about water”, at an IHE alumni event during Stockholm World Water Week. After I told her the story I wanted to tell, she said: “Make a short film about Cabo Verde!” Her enthusiasm fuelled my own. I kept looking for funding for two years. In 2023, I won the Water Youth Challenge Competition through the SWISS Water Partnership program, and I finally got the money to return to Cabo Verde and shoot the film.
The Power of the Valves
This film shows how valves are manipulated to direct and redirect water throughout the city influencing where, how, and for how long consumers get water. It speaks to debates on water commercialisation and service differentiation by water utilities in the Global South, by portraying one of the strategies employed by the utility to serve its consumers.
The film focuses on the day-to-day operations of water utilities, the people behind them, and the consumers they serve. I highlight the real challenges faced in balancing commercial and social objectives in making water available to everyone. Experts like IHE Delft’s Akosua Boakye-Ansah, who works on urban water governance in Africa and was my thesis mentor, speak on these challenges.
Through this film, I want to illuminate how water decisions are made. Why does one neighbourhood get water every day, while another only gets it twice a week? How are these choices impacting people’s lives? The film shows how seemingly technical operations around valves are inspired by political goals like ensuring the utility’s financial profitability, and also have social impacts in terms of who, how, and when gets water.
Documenting the everyday reality of valve operators in Santa Cruz, this film marks the beginning of a much-needed critical conversation on water distribution. My goal is to take this project further by launching pilot initiatives to rehabilitate valves in the areas that need it most, where water barely reaches. Currently, I am mapping out potential partnerships with socially responsible foundations and organizations eager to make a tangible difference. If you’re passionate about creating real change on the ground, I invite you to watch the film and reach out to discuss how we can collaborate to improve water access in Santa Cruz!
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Helen Barbosa (October 11, 2024). “The Power of the Valves”: from master thesis to short film. FLOWs. Retrieved July 11, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/12gcw
I agree with you. Our government has been slowly updating the system either per island or per municipality. In parallel with the technical work, there is still a need to look at the economic empowerment of the citizens or the operational and maintenance regime for the water utility, otherwise, other forms of service differentiation will keep happening
Is a very good researched work, but my contribution on how to improve water supply in the area is as follows, since the area had sufficient surface water. what’s you needs is to re design the system completely, 1. Considering the population growth 2. Do the projections in the next 50 to 70 years design periods 3. Change completely the pipelines networks 4. for peoples leaving at high altitude provide more Buster pumps so as to increased the discharge of water to the area, also construct more valves chambers for the protections of thus valves