Rain, snow, fog, hurricanes, mangroves, semi-desert, forests… In the La Guajira peninsula, the Wayuu culture has been forged in almost all scenarios and treasures a close and vital relationship with water. Mining, global warming, and neglect threaten the “children of the rain god and Mother Earth.” The short film The children of the rain, afinalist at the We Art Water Film Festival, offers us a beautiful image of their spiritual relationship with water. 

In summer, extreme heat episodes are becoming more frequent. They start earlier and are more intense. Heat waves add a negative factor to climate change, which becomes a serious global health problem that can accelerate desertification processes and significantly alter the environment. We must mitigate global warming and adapt to living with more heat.

More than 270 million Indonesians live in an emerging economy with severe deficiencies in access to water and sanitation, health, and poverty.  We have been in direct contact with these endemic problems with our projects for the past five years. The government plans foster collaboration between administrations, institutions, and companies to tackle the significant challenge of financing the solutions and are a hope for demonstrating the importance of taking on the SDG 17 targets to attain SDG 6: universal water and sanitation. 

We are under-investing in ocean science. We need to know more about such harmful mechanisms as ocean acidification, warming, and pollution. So far, the oceans have protected us from the worst effects of climate change, but there is great uncertainty about their ability to continue to do so in the future.  

In Nepal, only 15% of the rural population has access to a safe water source in their homes. The short film Homework, a finalist at the We Art Water Film Festival 5, shows how Sumnima, a village school student, cannot complete her homework because she has to fetch water for her family. All this in a country whose mountains make it the second most water-abundant country on Earth. Nepal is fighting to end this paradox.   

Science has virtually reached an ultimatum. The next few years are critical to mitigating the climate crisis. We must halve greenhouse gas emissions before 2030 to prevent the atmosphere from warming at its current rate. Failure to do so could derail the world’s adaptation efforts in the face of droughts, floods, rising sea levels, and heat waves. Achieving this is now the priority, and we are running out of time.  

Concurrent droughts, occurring at the same time in different regions of the world, are the most concerning phenomena for ending hunger. Their effects, combined with economic crises, wars and political instability, are often devastating in humanitarian terms for the poorest countries and have dire consequences on a global scale. Climate science is redoubling its efforts to improve forecasting. But international political action is essential.

What unites such diverse and geographically distant areas? The need to effectively manage water, a scarce commodity. The Smart Water, Smart (Collective) Creativity conference series ends its first phase by promoting a cross-cutting vision among some leading players in human progress: architecture, design, industry, technology, and tourism. The signing of an agreement between the Foundation and the Region of Murcia is an example of the synergies and collaborations needed to preserve the value of water.