ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA. IWR’s International Center for Integrated Water Resources Management (ICIWaRM) under the auspices of UNESCO helped organize a major photography exhibit this year during the 7th World Water Forum in Gyeongbuk, Republic of Korea. The photographs were displayed at the Citizen’s Forum in Gyeongju and are the works of Mr. Gil Garcetti*, UNESCO-IHE Cultural Ambassador. The stunning exhibit was co-organized by UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft, The Netherlands; and the goals were to raise awareness and gain new insights to the pivotal role of women as providers and users of water and custodians of the living environment.
Every three years, the World Water Forum mobilizes creativity, innovation, and know-how around water. Serving as a stepping-stone towards global collaboration on water challenges, the Forum is a unique multi-stakeholder platform where the water community and the policy and decision makers from all regions of the world can work together to find joint solutions. It is the largest international event which seeks to advance the cause of water.
Mr. Garcetti’s photography series, African Women, Water and Wells, tells a moving story of how clean water in villages in West Africa changes the lives, health, education, and opportunities of the people there, especially those of women and girls. The striking images in the exhibit do not necessarily tell a positive story since more than a billion people are without safe water. When clean water is available, entire village economics change and the lives of the inhabitants are transformed from disease and malnutrition to hope and success. Traveling in countries such as Niger, Ghana, Mali, and Burkina Faso, interviewing villagers and seeing first-hand what water means to the people, Garcetti became moved to bring the story to a wider audience and initiate a call to action to the industrialized world through his photographs. Now as a UNESCO-IHE Cultural Ambassador, Mr. Garcetti is a part of a unique program that builds a pact between culture and science. The Institute appoints individuals who possess widely recognized talent in the arts, sciences, literature, entertainment, sport or other fields of public life, bestowing the title of Cultural Ambassador on these talented people.
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For more information, visit www.iwr.usace.army.mil or www.iciwarm.org.
Symposium: https://www.unesco-ihe.org/7th-world-water-forum
*Previously a prosecutor with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office for 32 years, eight of which he was the elected District Attorney (1992-2000), a serendipitous photo of an ironworker working on the construction of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles led Gil Garcetti to a new career. His photography books have led him to tell his stories in numerous photo exhibitions and presentations throughout the world, such as at The United Nations in New York, UNESCO in Paris, the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., the Fowler Museum at UCLA, and the Millennium Museum in Beijing.