The oil spills in the Marañón River cause an environmental and human disaster that reveals the defenselessness suffered by many Amazonia inhabitants when faced with the legal maze in the fight for their human rights. The short film Cuninico, when the rain forest turns black, finalist of the We Art Water Film Festival 4, shows the marginalization of the natives whose lives and economy directly depend on the river.

The periodic crises in the African “Hunger Belt” have provided a more accurate and effective vision of the relationship between desertification and human activities. Regardless of the droughts, poor resource exploitation practices have been determinants of land degradation. The African Great Green Wall project gives hope to the Sahel, one of the most vulnerable areas to the current climate crisis.

In Rwanda, one of Africa’s emerging economies, half of the population lacks access to water. In villages like Rugaramura, water supply disruptions last for weeks and its inhabitants have to fetch water outside the village. “Amazi”, one of the finalist short films of the We Art Water Film Festival 4, recreates an attitude that is the basis of the Rwandan people’s recovery: joy, a shared emotion that best integrates a community to face the future with confidence.

In the cities in Nigeria, only one in ten people has a supply of water. For homeless children it is a treasure that is difficult to find. This is the case of Bala, the protagonist of the micro-documentary Pure Water Boy, the winner of the Audience Award of the We Art Water Film Festival 4: he survives by selling water and by drinking the remains of what he sells. But he considers himself fortunate: his colleagues in the north of the country live in worse conditions.

In the outlying slums of the capital of Sierra Leone, the population constantly increases in shacks without water or sanitation. Children bear the brunt: they miss school hours fetching water that often makes them sick. This is the reality of Kadija A. Bangura, shown in the micro-documentary Far Away, one of the finalists of the We Art Water Film Festival 4.

In many areas of Russia, plenty of villages are left without water due to the destruction of aquifers. This is the case of one of the 60 families of Beriózovski, narrated in the micro documentary SNOW, one of the finalists of the We Art Water Film Festival 4. For them snow is the safest water source.

Water will always be there, but not water security. It is a more enveloping concept that allows experts to better communicate the complexity of the urban water cycle to citizens, making them participate in its management model, in its benefits and risks. Well informed users enable the creation of a context with a participatory and transparent governance in which we all feel involved. Water security goes beyond the simple access to water and implies constant work.

Around fifty thousand women in Haiderpur will overcome the hygienic difficulties of menstruation, and many more have found work opportunities. Also more than 660 families in Bhiwadi can now avoid open defecation. Some testimonies of women benefitting from the projects of the Foundation in India show the importance of working for gender equality throughout the entire country.