The water taps on the streets of Methinkot ran dry after the devastating earthquake of 2015 in Nepal. The 700 inhabitants of the village now depend on a single fountain half an hour’s walk away. The short film The last Sprout, by Poudel, one of the finalists of the We Art Water Film Festival 4, tells the daily routine of Puspa, a 12-year-old girl, her mother and her aunt, who spend up to six hours every day fetching water.

The unstoppable exponential growth of cities will turn us into an eminently urban species in a few decades. For life on Earth to be sustainable cities also need to be so, and this will not be possible without the smart technologies integrated in circular economy. Their implementation is a great challenge for poor economies, which are most overwhelmed by urban growth and are not able to supply water and sanitation. This needs to be an international responsibility because what happens in these cities will be decisive for life on Earth.

In Lake Wular, Kashmir, Billa collects floating garbage to support his family. He is happy because by doing this, he is contributing to cleaning the water. He is the protagonist of Saving the Saviour, the short film by Jalal Jeelani, finalist in the micro-documentary category of the We Art Water Film Festival 4. His life and testimony highlight the importance of saving the largest freshwater reserve in India and also ending the situation of millions of children around the world who, like him, depend on the collection of garbage to survive.

“Black”. That is how many children in Nepal perceive water. Like the protagonist of Color of Water, the short film by Sabin Maharjan, winner of the We Art Water Film Festival 4 in the micro-fiction category. The Himalayan country, which is home to the headwaters of the main rives in southern Asia, has severe supply problems for its population.

In Wakiso, right in the heart of Uganda, a project of the We Are Water Foundation and World Vision is turning an orphanage into a reference point in the management of water access in one of the countries with the greatest water crisis. At the Global 6K For Water race on the 19th May we will run for its students and for all women and children that need to walk to collect water to survive.

Never before has the survival or our life pattern depended on water. The water crisis, exacerbated by climate change, affects us all, but it will affect new generations even more. There is an urgent need for dialogue to find accurate diagnoses that will lead to effective solutions. With this goal in mind, the We Are Water Foundation gathered experts in meteorology and water treatment on World Water Day for a debate on the crucial issues all of us and the coming generations will need to face.

Access to clean water without having to walk for miles to collect it, latrines for safety and privacy, hygiene education for their health and visibility to be empowered: millions of women and girls need it to attain the justice they deserve.

In many deprived areas with no access to water, millions of people are not aware that some of their daily routines pollute the water they will end up drinking. Knowledge of good hygienic and sanitary practices related to water is essential to end the embarrassingly endemic diseases in many areas of the world.