ACFJ congratulates G. M. B. Akash, a renown photojournalist from Bangladesh, for winning the 2nd Water Integrity photo competition. The Water Integrity Network (WIN) organized this international contest focused on the precious value of water as well as the dangers that badly managed water can expose people to in urbanized settings.
A student of the Diploma in Multimedia Journalism, Akash submitted his entry depicting how children in the slum area of Mirpur in Dhaka, Bangladesh use to drink water wherever they got the chance to get the pipe. Slum dwellers of Mirpur hardly get drinkable water. Bad smell and impure wastage made the water high-risk.
The competition received over 300 photos of which 14 were shortlisted. These pictures showed the damaging effect of corruption in cities or that highlighted transparency, integrity, participation and/or accountability to avoid corruption in water for cities.
Water has become a critical and challenging problem in urban areas worldwide. The UN estimates that 2030, five billion people will be urban citizens who will face water access shortage and source pollution due, among others, to corruption.
Akash will be formally announced the competition winner during a prize ceremony at Stockholm World Water Week 2011 on 21 August during the WIN co-convened session: Benchmarking Governance of Public and Private Utilities in Urban Settings with a Corruption Angle at the Stockholm World Water Week,
The winning photo, along with the 9 short-listed ones, will also be exhibited at the WIN exhibition booth during the World Water Week 2011.
Formed in 2006, WIN aims to fight corruption in the water sector. It stimulates anti-corruption activities in the water sector locally, nationally and globally. It promotes solutions-oriented action and coalition building between civil society, the private and public sectors, media and governments.
