In 2009, I was asked to serve as chair of the jury for the 2009-2010WASH media awards organized by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, an organization as excellent as its name is clunky. It was a great privilege and very humbling, particularly in this day and media age, to meet journalists who see their career as a vocation, who understand that they can bear important witness, and who choose to write about the too-often neglected topic of water and sanitation. Inevitably I was particularly interested in seeing good journalism about sanitation, but the awards are open to any journalist, in any media, writing about sanitation, hygiene or water issues. Here is this year’s call for entries:
The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) and the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) welcome entries for the fourth edition of the WASH Media Awards. This competition is open to journalists who publish or broadcast original investigative stories and reports on water supply, sanitation or hygiene (WASH) related issues and their impact on individual and country development.
Entries must be published or broadcast between 1st April 2011 and 1st April 2012 in English, French or Hindi (works not originally produced in one of these languages must be submitted together with a translation). Eligible formats are: print & online, TV, radio, cartoons & photos.
Six prizes will be awarded: one for the best entry in print & online format, one for the best entry in radio format, one for the best entry in cartoons & photos format, one for the best entry for the theme ‘economics of sanitation’, one for the best entry from a journalist based in a high-income country or a reporter working for an international media outlet. Prizes 1 to 5 will be awarded to journalists from developing and middle income countries. The six winners will receive a cash prize and will be invited to participate in the World Water Week in Stockholm in August 2012 as special guests of WSSCC and SIWI.
Entries must be received no later than 1st April 2012, together with a duly filled in entry form, by regular post or email to wsscc@wsscc.org. For more information and to download entry forms please visit here.