Share your water story Favorite 

Share Your Water Story invites every global citizen to participate in a creative conversation around the different ways in which water impacts our lives. The project encourages people to contribute original expression of any kind via online platforms on the global justice issue of water and sanitation. It is underpinned by a shared belief that the story of water is connected to the story of our lives, that every story deserves to be told and everyone has a water story to tell.

Share your water story via the Facebook group or a social media platform of your choice with the hashtag #shareyourwaterstory

The intended impact is that participants will feel moved by one another’s stories, connect the personal to the global and develop a sense of connectedness to humanity and nature. Our hope is that ultimately, through a process of critical thinking, people may feel more empowered around being part of global solutions for global access to water.

We hope that in engaging with this process, participants will rediscover what is of true value: not wealth but health by protecting our natural resources, such as water (head). It is our hope that participation will inspire a sense of gratitude for the simple things in life (heart). We would like to see a reduction in our consumption of resources, a shift from consumer-driven economies, more local government based on community needs and use of artivism to nurture new beliefs, new stories, future possibilities beginning in the present (hands).

So far, responses have been varied and personal. Many participants used videos to share their water stories including: water as a moving body, the sounds of water, rivers on their journeys to the sea, wildlife in and near water. Poetry was used to express emotional, spiritual and political reflections, water as a body to be travelled through and on, diving into other worlds, swimming and feeling connected to nature, people packed into small boats, fleeing conflict zones, drowning in water. Images were used to convey stories about memories such as playing football in the rain, a time of drought, a scene depicting the panic buying of toilet rolls at the onset of Covid-19. A representative from SWAN (Sustainable Water Network) recently approached us about sharing the initiative with their network.

In terms of principles and ethical considerations, we wanted to acknowledge that everyone has a right to safe access to clean water to meet basic needs and to sanitation, which protects water quality and promotes good health but also to recognise that not everyone’s rights are met. The intention is to emphasise connectedness between global citizens and not to make anyone feel bad or feel like they are ‘helping’ anyone else, more a sense of us all being in this together. We want to support access to water and all natural resources, not only for people we personally know, but also for people we don’t know all around the world, invoking SDG Goal 6 to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. We gave consideration to the possibility for children to access this initiative in a safe way. We considered how anyone without Facebook would access this online platform also.

We have thought about how the principles used in this awareness-raising activity could be taken into future actions. The connected link of how water is treated can be deployed in future actions to highlight a range of global justice issues. Opening a creative conversation on a theme can highlight other global justice issues such as:
· Consumerism
· Globalisation
· Life on land/agricultural practices
· Climate change
· Inequalities
· Collaboration

Tips, tools and links for anyone who is inspired to carry out their own action:

Be clear on your global justice issue and what change you would like to see in the world.
Identify who you would like to communicate with and how best to access them.
Collaborate and utilise your groups’ skills: There’s no need to reinvent the wheel.
Setting sustainable development agendas for others can be aggressive - really wanting a success story for ourselves from our limited perspective, expecting others to live up to our ideals. Instead, we should be kind. No one knows what it takes for another person to change. For some people, speaking out is necessary; for others, being quiet, remaining still, instead of the habitual reaction.
Find ways to be kind to yourself to soften the whole world by accepting yourself and change of attitude to global values.

#shareyourwaterstory is organised in association with Creativity and Change, CIT/Crawford, Cork.