Pulitzer Center reports from the World Water Forum, and beyond
The World Water Forum, the world’s largest water policy event, held its fifth session last month in Istanbul. Organizers boasted 33,058 participants from 192 countries, from government officials to experts and advocates, plus over a thousand accredited journalists.
Among them was Jon Sawyer, executive director of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, attending as a part of group of journalists organized by Media21. He reported from the forum and captured short videos of activists, experts and journalists from around the world discussing their work. You can see all the videos by visiting Your Stories
Accompanying Jon were journalists Alex Stonehill and Ernest Waititu, who worked on the Water Wars reporting project for the Pulitzer Center. They were among 40 journalists who attended the Forum under the auspices of Media21, a Geneva-based non-profit that also organized follow-on field reporting trips to India and Ethiopia. Their dispatches are assembled here, along with links to short videos that highlight key aspects of the water challenge.
See Jon’s reporting from Ethiopia here and Alex and Ernest’s reports from India.
“Talking Water: Voices from Istanbul,” by Jon Sawyer
An international gathering devoted to water’s dominant role in global disease and health was rich in rhetoric and sparse on anything in the way of tangible policy breakthroughs… Continue reading
“On water, individuals making a difference,” by Jon Sawyer
Population Services International (PSI), the non-profit long known for its international distribution of condoms, is all about prevention – which is why PSI is now a big player on clean water, too… Continue reading
“Front-line perspectives: Journalists on water,” by Jon Sawyer
For Pakistani television journalist Shehryar Mufti it’s the underreported role of water resources in his country’s long-running conflict with India over Kashmir… Continue reading
“For women, girls and water, it’s donkey’s work,” by Jon Sawyer
Two weeks of briefings and field interviews on water and sanitation, first in Istanbul at the World Water Forum and then in Ethiopia, leave three indelible impressions… Continue reading
“Getting Our Minds Into the Gutter,” by Alex Stonehill
An estimated 35,000 people died last week as the 5th World Water Forum convened in Istanbul, Turkey. If you didn’t hear the news, don’t be surprised; the 35,000 deaths the week before, and the week before that didn’t grab any headlines either… Continue reading
More from the Media21 Reports:
Click here for more, including Kevin Ferguson’s reports for Business Week and The New York Times, Matt Weiser’s reporting for the Sacramento Bee, Saiful Islam Shamim’s reports for the National News Agency of Bangladesh and Maia Metaxa’s report for Moldova’s IMedia. Read Tasha Eichenseher’s reports for National Geographic here (scroll to bottom for all posts).
Two specialists who attended the World Water Forum have posted blogs since that address the issue of sanitation. John Sauer of Water Advocates writes for the Huffington Post (along with his colleague Andra Tamburro). Rose George, in a blog for PostGlobal, calls diarrhea “the world’s most effective weapon of mass destruction.”
