From drought to floods to pollution, urban communities worldwide face three fundamental water challenges — too little, too much or too dirty. To mark World Water Day, the CitiesWithWater International Photography Competition invites you to showcase and celebrate innovative local actions — at the individual, community and city levels — tackling these challenges and creating a more resilient, sustainable relationship with our most precious resource.
As a companion to the concurrent CitiesWithWater Webinar Series, the International Photography Competition highlights the potential of visual storytelling to enrich our understanding of complex urban water systems, revealing new dimensions of our interactions with them. Adopting a whole-of-society approach, the competition welcomes voices and perspectives from a diversity of local actors and communities from cities around the world, especially encouraging those of younger generations.
How is your city responding to pressing water challenges in a changing world? Capture the stories of individuals, communities, and cities reshaping their water systems for a more resilient future!
Join us in shifting the narrative from water challenges to solutions, inspiring action towards thriving and resilient CitiesWithWater!
submit your entry here by 30 June 2025
Submission Guidelines
Participants are invited to submit up to one entry per category:
Too Little: Initiatives addressing a shortage of, or limited access to, drinking water.
Too Much: Actions tackling flooding, sea level rise or other water-related hazards.
Too Dirty: Ways of dealing with polluted water sources and degraded aquatic ecosystems for improved human wellbeing and ecological health.
Each entry must include the following elements:
One high-quality image that clearly depicts the chosen challenge (Too Little, Too Much or Too Dirty) and highlights an innovative or inspiring local initiative addressing it.
A brief title
A short description/story (max. 200 words) about the chosen local action, the people behind it, and how it addresses the chosen water challenge.
Please submit each image as a JPEG/JPG or PNG file (max. 10 MB), with the following naming format: Category – First Name + Last Name (e.g. Too Little – Fatima Musa).
Submissions close at midnight Central European Time on 30 June 2025.
Prizes
With the generous support of Arup, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), UN-Habitat, the Water as Leverage Initiative, and the World Water Council, the competition is offering four winning prizes of EUR 1,000 each: one per thematic category and a special youth prize (ages 18–29 inclusive).
TOO LITTLE
€1000
TOO MUCH
€1000
TOO DIRTY
€1000
special youth prize
€1000
