Stockholm was originally built on the small island of Stadsholmen, and then extended in the northern and southern islands. Its history explains its configuration: a very displayed city, with its multiple islands connected by more than fifty bridges!

The history of this city is connected thus closely to the water, and it is doubtless because of this that Stockholm multiplies initiatives on this theme. For example it’s the only country in the world possessing an urban, partially aquatic, national park, the Nationalstadspark which extends over 27 km ². Side in Kungsträdgården, swans and ducks swim quietly, tourist attractions to them only.

It’s also in Stockholm where took place the World Week of the water last September. Throughout this week, topics dealt in particular with the quality of the water, with the prevention and with the fight against the pollution and with the necessary evolution of the politics of the water in front of global changes: forward-looking subjects and sustainable development, by a country which was elected "champion of the environment" in 2010 by the Commission of Brussels.

The water, a national heritageheritage

Placed by the sea the Baltic, the city is partially built on approximately one thousand islands among which fourteen main ones, in the mouth of the lake Mälar, what was worth to it (the city),

Finally, Stockholm organizes since 1991 Stockholm Water Prize, which is in the field of the water, the most prestigious international reward. Every year, an international jury indicated by Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and the Honorary president, His Majesty the King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, are in charge of examining applications and of appointing a prize-winner. The prize is awarded to private individuals, institutions or associations which the work contributed actively to the preservation and to the protection of water resources as well as to the improvement of the human health and the ecosystems.

The reward is a sum of 150 000 dollars and a crystal sculpture, given during the World Week of the water.

So, the 2010-prize returns to the American researcher Rita Colwell for its researches on the diseases connected to the water, specially the cholera. At the national level as international, Stockholm settles as the main defender of water and its preservation. Contributing widely to make the charm of the city, water is so joined into all the memoirs as the fundamental national property