Water Week is being built collaboratively, bringing together expertise and perspectives from across water, education, government, science, business, civil society, communications and the creative industries.
A programme of consultation and engagement is helping shape how Water Week can inspire people to understand, value and protect water – while complementing and amplifying the many organisations and initiatives already working to create a more water-secure future.
At the heart of the developing approach is a recognition that water security depends not only on infrastructure, technology and policy, but also on people. Building greater water literacy, encouraging participation and giving children and young people the knowledge and opportunities to become active water stewards can help strengthen the long-term impact of investment in our water future.
Shaped through collaboration
Consultation has brought together perspectives from across sectors and disciplines, exploring how education, storytelling, science, citizen participation and communications can work together – and where Water Week can add value without duplicating the excellent work already underway.
The emerging model is deliberately collaborative. Rather than creating another standalone campaign, Water Week aims to provide a shared framework that connects and strengthens existing initiatives, helps people discover opportunities to participate and enables organisations to share knowledge, resources and successful approaches.
Conversations and receptions in the UK have also helped bring together organisations and individuals with different relationships to water, creating opportunities to hear new perspectives, identify common priorities and explore how collective action could achieve more than organisations working independently.
More than 180 cross-sector stakeholders working across water conservation and pollution have already contributed to the process, with representatives from industry, government, NGOs, academia and international organisations helping inform Water Week's developing roadmap.
Stories that connect us
Film and storytelling have played an important part in these conversations, helping bring the human relationship with water alongside the science, engineering and policy discussions.
That thinking is now developing further through My Water Story, based on a simple idea: everyone has a relationship with water and everyone has a story to tell.
By capturing perspectives from children and young people, scientists, engineers, conservationists, educators, communities and many others, these stories can help make complex water issues personal, accessible and relevant – while inspiring people to discover the role they can play.
The consultation is continuing as Water Week develops, and we welcome perspectives from organisations and individuals who would like to help shape what comes next.
