Spain is one of the most water-stressed industrialized countries in the world. The country faces the challenge of ensuring long-term water security. Water governance is endemically lagging in promoting investment and public-private partnerships. Citizens need to be part of the solutions, understanding the complexity and cost of the whole water cycle. Spain's actions can be a hopeful reference for the more than 2.5 billion inhabitants of the world's drylands.

The moorlands are home to pristine water and natural balance. They are also of immeasurable cultural value, as they are the backbone of an intense and profound relationship with nature and water. Many moorlands are at risk. The Sumapaz, in Colombia, is one of them. In El espíritu del agua (The spirit of water), Diana Moreno, finalist of the We Art Water Film Festival 5, shows us how the recovery of the ancestral culture can be the most powerful action to save them.

“Groundwater: making the invisible visible.” The theme of this World Water Day should make the world understand the fragility of the source of life we have underground, which must be urgently saved. Adequate management of agriculture, irrigation, and livestock is the fundamental pillar to stop the deterioration of groundwater that threatens food security and the world’s environmental balance.

It is happening again. In Ukraine, war once again shows the worst side of the human condition, the failure of a civilization that claims global humanitarian achievements. We have started two projects there to help the victims of another episode of human insanity. Solidarity is the hope of those who suffer and all humanity that suffers with them. Help us to bring water to the victims.

No path to sustainability is possible if women are not the focus of any actions. The Agenda 2030 will not be achieved without the participation of each and every woman in the world free from the injustices that oppress them. The access to water and sanitation reveals some of the most excruciating inequalities, which are often little known. We know that much remains to be done, but the path is becoming clearer: with them and for them. Here are some of the facts as of today.

The climate crisis is drying up many sources and forcing many to move in search of water. More than 110 million people worldwide use water directly from rivers, streams, ponds, or lakes, and four million die every year from drinking inadequate water. Droughts threaten to increase this figure. The drama of this scourge in Nigeria is described in the short film Hope is not enough, finalist at the We Art Water Film Festival 5.

The climate crisis is creating severe problems in Cameroon. Desertification and floods generate thousands of displaced people every year who end up in cities unable to provide drinking water for all. The short film Mami Wata, a micro-documentary finalist at the We Art Water Film Festival 5, provides a testimony of the vulnerability of millions of Cameroonians who survive in one of the most water-deficient African countries.

The terms describing hygiene facilities are simpler than those for access to water and sanitation; they refer to the existence or lack of handwashing facilities and the availability of clean water and soap. Covid-19 has increased the value of these practices, which are fundamental to human health and dignity, and inaccessible to more than 2.27 billion people.