We’ve been warned for decades that the next “war” between the world’s haves and have-nots is going to be over water.

From hydroelectric dams pushed by outside profiteers to mineral interests that need water for mining to just plain “let’s buy up the rights to people’s drinking water” megacorporations, the threats have been piling up in much of the world since the 1990s.

It’s such a threat that even James Bond took on a villain with water control in his sights in “Quantum of Solace” some seventeen years ago.

“Water for Life” is a documentary account of this years-long struggle in the Americas. Filmmakers Will Parrinello and Sarah Kass take us to Chile, where the indigenous Mapuche people march, agitate and even sabotage companies their government has sold lumber and hydro power rights to, threatening “sacred” rivers they depend on.

We meet El Salvadoran farmers and others whose government made deals with a multi-national gold mining concern to dig and drain their rivers to do it.

And we go inside the fight against destructive hydro projects in neighboring Honduras, where the region’s history of poverty, violence and official corruption hangs over high-handed decisions, which can only be resisted at the risk of one’s own life.

Chief Alberto Curamil of the Mapuche complains about a Chilean government that refuses to recognize its Indigenous people, which is a handy stance to take when you want to exploit lumber and rivers in the nation’s “empty” interior, the very “lifeblood of our territory,” Curamil declares (in Spanish with English subtitles).

How Chief Curamil is treated is something of a template for corporate interests and governments determined to cash in on them in the Americas. He and his fellow protestors are labeled anti-progress “terrorists,” which puts anyone who takes part in a protests in danger. Over his years long fight, he is sent to prison on trumped up charges.

In El Salvador, farmer/protestor Francisco Pineda can opine that “all we need is clean water and clean air and land to farm,” but with China looking to sell dams abroad, and multinational mining interests with World Bank connections leaning on poor countries, that’s a big ask. Fighting back may be imperitive, but the game seems fixed against them.

When you name your company Pacific Rim, and you make your “suit” CEO named Shrake the face of the company, you’re all but giving away the supervillains-after-your-resources game.

In Honduras, the violence is more direct, the corruption more naked and the stain of U.S. interference in the region is harder to wash out as Indigenous activist Berta Cáceres takes up the cause of saving rivers from damming by local interests with Chinese ties.

“Water for Life” can be hopeful as it shows up people power standing up to Big Business and its over-compensated lawyers, bought-and-paid-for-politicians and “foreign” threats in an effort to save Indigenous people and beautiful natural spaces. The relentless nature of the threats and the chilling presence of the First World operated World Bank in all of these conflicts make one wonder how long the powerless can keep up the struggle.

But with the world’s politics devolving into might-makes-right and greed gets its way governance, it’s still encouraging to see those directly threatened uniting and rising to meet the challenge.

Rating: unrated

Cast: Narrated by Diego Luna, with Berta Cáceres Alberto Curamil, Francisco Pineda and others.

Credits: Directed by Will Parrinello, scripted by Sarah Kass. A release Mill Valley Film Group/JustFilms release on PBS “POV” beginning April 21.

Running time: 1:31