Global Risks 2015 Report a Powerful Media Tool

By Mercedes Sayagues

The United Nations and other international development organizations put a lot of creative thought into how to bring alive the critical issues of our time so that they get media coverage and spur public understanding and action.

As a media trainer, I recently led workshops with a number of African journalists, helping them to focus on the huge problem of water scarcity that is destabilizing societies across the continent and beyond.

I used a powerful tool to open the workshops: the World Economic Forum’s report Global Risks 2015. The report cites local water crises as the greatest risk in terms of global impact. It ranks water shortages and pollution ahead of the spread of infectious diseases, climate change and interstate conflict.

Presented at the start of the training, this ranking never failed to shock and inspire the journalists who proceeded to develop fresh angles in their reporting on water management.

The journalists have no shortage of stories to cover at home.

Half of Mozambique’s water comes from rivers shared with neighbours, making it highly dependent on transfrontier-river management.

The DRC worries about Chad’s plan to divert water from the mighty Congo river to the once large but now shrinking lake Chad.

Madagascar faces underground water pollution from mining, pesticides and human waste.

Seychelles wants to retrofit its schools and government offices with rainwater collectors to compensate for its shorter rainy seasons due to climate change.

These are issues that journalists from those countries developed during my training workshops in May and June. Each training preceded the national water week and were sponsored by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), responsible for regional cooperation on water management. Global Water Partnership and InterPress Service organized the training.

The young journalists saw how access to water is tied into other issues. Gender came up frequently: many teen girls miss schooldays every month for lack of running water and toilets to maintain personal hygiene; the location of latrines in villages and refugee camps must consider safety from rape and harassment for female users.

Mercedes is a Rain Barrel Associate living in South Africa and working in several African countries.