Will algorithms and big data be able to control the 42,000 km³of usable fresh water all around the world? Will they be able to monitor its efficient use worldwide? Will they guarantee universal access to water? Will they create inequalities in decision-making to face the climate crisis? These are not science-fiction questions; in the smart world that is already underway, they point towards a future that is the goal of the current technological development based on big data and artificial intelligence.

The alteration of ocean dynamics in the North Atlantic Ocean is a factor that adds uncertainty to climate change forecasts. It raises alarm bells about a possible turning point in the water cycle with irreversible negative consequences and proves the close relationship between all factors that determine life on Earth.

The listing of water rights in California on the Wall Street stock exchange has raised serious issues due to the negative influence it might have on the protection of the human right to water. It is the response of the free market to a scarce good that is subject to the ups and downs in availability and prices mainly due to the climate crisis and the increase in demand. It is a factor that opens the perspective to financial speculation and this must be avoided.   

The fifth edition of the We Art Water Film Festival has just announced its four winners. The short films confirm, once again, the value of cinema as a tool to convey and share knowledge and emotions, two essential elements to make progress in the enormous planetary challenge: we have one water but very different ways of having access and relating to it.

The winners of the fifth edition of the We Art Water Film Festival will be announced on Monday, World Water Day. The selected 45 short films compose a journey filled with revelations and emotions through our relationship with water. Each piece is a deep reflection about its value and can be extended to anyone around the world. With this Festival, the value of water expands to the art of communication, essential to ensure that everyone has access to it.

The ancient history of mankind has been marked by all kinds of crises caused by the lack of water due to climate changes. Many cultures were able to overcome them, others were unable to adapt and declined. We have to learn from the cultures that resisted and those that succumbed.

Water emerges as the raw material to cleanly obtain hydrogen, a gas that will surely play a key role in the complicated and long journey towards the drastic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Water and energy make up an indivisible duality, which is strengthened by hydrogen. H₂O takes on a new perspective for the planet’s health and prosperity.

The fight against the global eradication of trachoma needs a final push. The terrible disease, which causes blindness in 1.9 million people, requires surgery and antibiotics, but also clean water, hygiene and sanitation. The slowdown due to Covid-19 can be reversed in a joint and complementary move toward eradicating both diseases in the poorest and most disadvantaged areas in the world.