The short film Lágrimas de la Tierra (Tears of the Earth) by the Mexican David Ballesteros won the audience award at the fifth edition of the We Art Water Film Festival. It is a document on the unspeakable human damage caused by toxic discharges into the water. Governments and companies are obliged to control them and citizens must denounce them and claim their rights. The awareness of young people is the great hope, in Mexico and all around the world.  

Myanmar’s northern regions are subject to the climate variability that monsoon Asia is experiencing. Water stress increases, disrupting the supply in places that had never experienced any shortages. The short film Everyday Needs shows the solidarity of two water vendors that donate it to those most in need.

Africa’s largest island is facing a serious humanitarian emergency. Drought and sand storms have unleashed one of the worst food crises in the history of a country with endemic deficiencies in water infrastructures and with a governance that is incapable of adequately managing the territory. The short film Where to go?, finalist at the We Art Water Film Festival 5, provides direct evidence of a crisis that threatens to kill more than a million people.  

Lack of water, poor quality of parched pastures and inefficient governance underlie most ethnic and religious conflicts in the Sahel region. In the so called African “hunger belt”, it is clear that the attainment of the SDG 6 is essential to attain all other goals, especially SDG 16: peace, justice and strong institutions. An achievement that will enable the planet to envision a much better future.

The last herders survive in Mongolia, victims of globalization and climate change. Most of them have migrated to the capital, taking their yurts, tarpaulin dwellings where they live without running water, electricity or sanitation. Water Trolley, the short film by Toguldur Chuluunbaatar, finalist of the micro-documentary category at the We Art Water Film Festival 5, shows us a child’s daily fight to provide his family with water in one of Ulan Bator’s marginal neighborhoods.

The acceptance of sustainability as an economic asset is spreading among companies. It transforms the concept of social responsibility and brings economy closer to citizens. Water use efficiency is increasingly present in sustainable business growth strategies and is critical to attain the SDGs.

When is a country known to be water efficient, and is its agriculture, industry or urban supply water efficient? The attainment of the SDG 6 by 2030 forces us to provide an answer to these questions. UN Water has developed certain indicators to help manage water efficiency and also to understand it.

Statistics have overlooked them until now, but they are the closest to people.  Scattered trees have been crucial for rural economies and vital for the survival in arid regions. We now have tools to know more about them and corroborate their importance in the environmental balance, the fight against desertification and soil management.