ProjeCts & programs – Project and initiatives
CitiesWithWater International Photography Competition
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Presentation
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!
Project objectives
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.
Join us in shifting the narrative from water challenges to solutions, inspiring action towards thriving and resilient CitiesWithWater!
Informations
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.
- All entrants must be over the age of 18.
- The competition is open to photographs across all levels of proficiency and sectors of society, budding hobbyists and professionals alike.
- All images must be taken and submitted with the permission of their subject(s), in compliance with General Data Protection Regulation. Personal information of subject(s) must not be visible without proper consent.
- Images in which children are clearly identifiable by their faces will be disqualified. However, non-identifiable silhouettes and children in image backgrounds are permitted.
- All photographs must respect the privacy and dignity of individuals. Images that are voyeuristic or degrading to the dignity of the subject(s) will be disqualified.
- Images may be submitted from any geographical region.
- The content and context of the images must be of, or in, a city or urban environment or city-region.
- “Local initiatives” can include different geographic scales within a city (e.g. individual, household, neighborhood, community, district or city-level).
- Photographs may be taken with any kind of camera. Minor editing is permitted to enhance the natural quality of the image (e.g. cropping, sharpening, light exposure adjustments and color correction). However, entries that heavily alter the image or rely on generative artificial intelligence (AI) will be disqualified.
Shortlisted images will be evaluated by and international judging panel on the following criteria:
- Thematic alignment: How well do the image, title and description align to collectively embody the theme? This refers to how effectively the image captures the chosen water-related challenge (Too Little, Too Dirty or Too Much) and the process and/or outcome of the chosen local initiative. Importantly, images should transcend only the depiction of the challenge itself and focus on the chosen solution.
- Aesthetic value and technical quality: How effectively has the photographer used visual techniques to convey the theme? Light, composition, contrast and other photographic elements should work together to produce images of high technical quality that support and strengthen the story that the photographer aims to tell about their chosen initiative and the people driving it.
- Impact and creativity: How powerfully does the image evoke emotion, stoke imagination, challenge preconceived notions or provoke new ideas? Entries will be evaluated based on their originality, creativity and the lasting impact of their visual storytelling.
- 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).
- Shortlisted entries will be showcased on an online exhibition page.
- The winning photographers will have their images exhibited during Stockholm Water Week on 24–28 August 2025.
- Participants retain all copyrights to their images, and will be credited in writing with any use of their submitted images.
- By submitting an image to the competition, participants confirm that the entry is their own work and that they have the permissions necessary to share it with ICLEI and the World Water Council.
- Upon submission of their entry, each participant grants ICLEI and the World Water Council the right to use their image(s) in the following ways:
- Required: To showcase their image on all applicable ICLEI and World Water Council platforms for the purposes of promoting, conducting and reporting on the CitiesWithWater Webinar Series and International Photography Competition.
- Required: To showcase their image on all applicable ICLEI and World Water Council platforms for the purposes of promoting, conducting and reporting on the CitiesWithWater Webinar Series and International Photography Competition.
- Optional: To showcase their images on all applicable ICLEI and World Water Council platforms to promote future photographic competitions and water-related events.
The competition launched on World Water Day, 22 March 2025
Entries close at midnight Central European Time on 30 June 2025.
Submit your entry here by 30 June 2025
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeGh23qx3UarfGiLa9u12CD4TUX3lut6uoGcWogy2RzRI96Tg/viewform
For any questions about the CitiesWithWater Photography Competition, please contact Luka Dreyer (ICLEI Africa) at luka.dreyer@iclei.org.