Draft:Walk of Water

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• Comment: In accordance with the Wikimedia Foundation's Terms of Use, I disclose that I have been paid by my employer for my contributions to this article. Maja Jupi (talk) 13:58, 4 August 2026 (UTC)

Walk of Water (also known as WoW) is an annual international photostory contest and touring exhibition focused on water-related themes. It is organized by Onewater (formerly known as Water Science Policy), a German not-for-profit social enterprise, in partnership with the UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP). Each edition's theme aligns with that year's United Nations World Water Development Report. Winning entries are exhibited internationally, including at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris and the United Nations 2023 Water Conference in New York.^[1][2]

The organization behind Walk of Water was founded in 2020 by a graduate cohort from the University of Oxford's School of Geography and the Environment, initially under the name Water Science Policy. It was registered as a not-for-profit social enterprise in Germany in 2021 and later renamed Onewater.^[3][4] As of 2026, Onewater draws on the support of more than 300 volunteers from over 50 countries.^[5]

Since 2014, UNESCO has published a thematic report each year on the state of the world's water resources called the United Nations World Water Development Report (UN WWDR).^[6] To support the 2022 theme on groundwater, Onewater launched the first Walk of Water photostory contest on 1 October 2021, in partnership with UNESCO WWAP, the International Water Resources Association (IWRA), and the Global Water Partnership (GWP), under the theme "Groundwater - Making the Invisible Visible," trying to bring to the surface, in the form of photos, what we usually don't see and don't think about.^[7][8] As of 2025, the contest has received more than 20,000 image submissions from photographers in over 120 countries.^[7]

Photographers of all experience levels may submit photo stories — sets of up to ten images accompanied by written narratives in response to the year's theme. Entries are reviewed by an international jury, and winning and shortlisted stories are subsequently featured on Onewater's website and in a travelling exhibition.^[7]

The inaugural edition focused on groundwater depletion, an issue that is rarely discussed and rarely seen in photographs.^[8] The contest's winner was Prabha Jayesh.^[9] Selected photographs were exhibited at the UN-Water Summit on Groundwater at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris in December 2022.^[7] As a follow-up, Onewater crowdfunded and published Groundwater, a book featuring photostories from the contest alongside expert commentary, launched at the University of Oxford in November 2022.^[7][10] The book was funded through a Startnext crowdfunding campaign run between August and October 2022 by Water Science Policy (Onewater's original name), which reached its minimum funding goal of €4,000; proceeds covered layout, editing, printing, and compensation for the contributing photographers.^[11] The original photo competition that generated the book's images was held in partnership with IWRA and UNESCO WWAP.^[12]

The second edition addressed the importance of cooperation in the water sector, but also between communities..^[7][13] Winning entries were later featured as part of the larger "Walk of Water: An Intergenerational Journey" exhibition, developed with the Arts Coalition for Water and opened on 22 March 2023 at the UN 2023 Water Conference in New York, with contributions curated by UNESCO-IHP, the Global Network of Water Museums, IHE Delft, InfoNile, and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre.^{[7][14][15][16]} Onewater team members Christian Fischer and Eliana Harrigan contributed to the exhibition's accompanying JRC publication.^[14] The exhibition featured more than 60 images; some purely artistic, others more documentary in style, and later travelled to Washington, D.C. and Brussels.^[15][16] In the 2026, the exhibition had a stop at Museo Hydra in Marmore, near Terni, Italy, from 22 May to 30 September 2026.^[17]. The contest's winner for that edition was Ainun Iskandar^[13]

The theme for the 2023 edition was "Water for Peace and Prosperity." The submissions highlighted how much water, or the absence of it, can influence the wellbeing of communities.^[7][18][19] The contest's winner was Pablo Tosco.^[18] Its winning stories were exhibited at Haus der Fotografie in Burghausen, Germany, from 20 July to 3 November 2024, as part of a 28-story exhibition,^[7][20] as well as at the Earth Technology Expo in Florence, the UN Ocean Decade Conference in Barcelona, and World Water Day events at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris and in Vancouver, Canada.^[7] At the Paris event, Onewater delivered a TED-style talk on the role of photography in communicating water-related challenges.^[21]

The 2025 was named the International Year of Glaciers' Preservation, the fourth edition, held in partnership with UNESCO WWAP, MPB, the Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the City of Burghausen, focused on melting glaciers and water storage.^[7][22] Sponsors funded regional prizes for South Asia, Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean on top of a €10,000 global prize pool, bringing the total to €20,000.^[22][23] More than 600 entries were submitted.^[7][24] The winning photographs were shown on UNESCO's fences in Paris from 11 March 2025, and in the Kasteyev Museum of Arts in Almaty, Kazakhstan, from 5–25 June 2025, organized by the UNESCO Regional Office in Almaty.^[25][26] The winning entry, by Slovenian photographer Ciril Jazbec, documented artificial ice stupas built in Ladakh, in the Himalayas, as a response to glacier loss.^[26]

The fifth edition, "Identities," explored the relationship between water and gender, culture, profession, and personal experience, aligning with the 2026 UN World Water Development Report's focus on water and gender.^[1] Submissions were accepted from October to December 2025.^[5] The contest received nearly 1,000 stories from 114 countries and awarded more than €10,000 in prizes, with support from the Asian Development Bank, WEX, Calumet, the Global Environment Facility's IW:Learn Platform, and WasserStiftung.^[27][28] German photographer Kristina Steiner won first prize for a photo story documenting Belgium's last horse-based shrimp fishers.^[27] WasserStiftung, a German water foundation and strategic partner of Onewater since 2025, sponsored a separate youth prize for the Sub-Saharan Africa region. Nigerian photographer Abdulrahman Abubakar won first prize in that category for a photo story on water, culture, and identity in Nigeria, followed by Shabani Herve from Burundi and Jessica Thomas from Nigeria.^[5]

Photographs from the contest, received coverage in outlets including The Guardian, New Scientist, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, GEO, and Stern.^{[2][29][30][31][32]}

In 2022, Onewater published Groundwater, a photobook drawing on entries from the 2021 contest edition, combining photostories with commentary from academics and water-sector professionals. The book was funded through a Startnext crowdfunding campaign (August–October 2022), which met its €4,000 minimum goal, and launched at a hybrid event with the University of Oxford's Oxford Water Network in November 2022.^[7][11][10]

Walk of Water exhibitions and contest results have been covered by international, national, and regional press, including The Guardian,^[2] New Scientist,^[29] the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,^[30] GEO,^[31] Stern,^[32] the Brazilian environmental outlet O Eco,^[33] and The Astana Times.^[26]

• UNESCO
• World Water Development Report
• Water conservation

• Virtual tour of the "Walk of Water — 28 Stories" exhibition, Haus der Fotografie, Burghausen