World Water Week is also an opportunity to draw attention to certain actions and to award prizes. To do so, the week highlights remarkable efforts to raise water awareness.
While until very recently communication with civil society was seen as optional, it has now become a necessity. And no-one in the water management field can deny it. For the management of water resources and their various uses depends on the behaviour, attitudes and mentalities of the citizens involved. This is why awareness raising and the distribution of information on water to the general public is a priority. Aware and informed, the people can express their views and influence choices, particularly in the field of water. Two examples of this are the Aarhus Agreement and Article 14 of the European Framework Directive on Water regarding public consultation. In this field film, like new communication and information technologies, is a means of contributing to raising awareness.

Thanks to the collaboration of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), the International “Water and Film” Events (IWFE) have already organised two parallel events on water and film in 2006 and 2007 during the Stockholm World Water Week. Furthermore, we launched a call for submissions for the IWFE Istanbul 2009 this summer in Stockholm on 16 August 2007.
This year, during WWW 2007, we noticed increasing interest in the use of films and videos on water and environmental issues to illustrate the topics covered in the thematic sessions and side events.
This summer, thanks to Elin Weyler, we organised an informal workshop with the finalists from the Stockholm Junior Water Prize, entitled “The next generation of scientists: passing on the water message”. We presented video clips that were part of the first IWFE Mexico 2006, and the winning clips of Festival VideEAU 2007. Then the young people separated into different groups to work with video cameras and create a clip on water.
The SJWP finalists seem to have enjoyed this activity. We think it could be useful to continue to develop this type of activity in order to highlight the work they accomplished through short films.