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Knowledge Showcases

Visions of Asias Water RealitiesBy Maria Christina Dueas and Cezar Tigno

ToraiseawarenessofAsiaswaterchallenges

andtheurgentneedtoaddressthem,ADBhas

developedtheWaterVoicesdocumentaryseries,

asetofstoriesshowcasinghowpeopleand

communitiessolvetheirwaterproblems.

Thedocumentarieshighlightmultipleperspectives,withprotagonistsexplainingtheirrole/sinsolvingwaterproblems.Theirgeographic,sociocultural,andpoliticalcircumstancesshapethesolutionsfeatured.

Thedocumentarieshaveenjoyedpositivefeedbackandwideappeal.A2005surveyrevealedthat

viewersndthemrelevant,usefulintraining

ormeetings,andworthrecommendingtoother

colleagues.

Setting

Addressing water issues can dramatically reducepoverty in the Asia and Pacic region and help reachthe Millennium Development Goals. For example,delivery of clean water supply and better sanitation

services improves health, frees time for educationand other income-generating activities, reducesgender inequalities, and protects the environmentfrom degradation. Improving irrigation increases cropproduction, food security, and income levels. Andprotecting and managing water resources help protectagainst oods, balance ecosystems, and safeguardshing livelihoods.

Unfortunately, growing populations, rapidurbanization, and competing demand for water foragriculture, energy, industrial, and domestic use haveleft water conditions in many countries in a criticalstate.

In 2001, ADB approved its Water for All policy topromote water as a socially vital economic goodthat needs increasingly careful management. Oneimperative of the policy was to raise awareness onwater challenges and the urgent need to address them.

In 2003, as part of a bank-wide water awarenessprogram, ADB launched the Water Voices documentaryseries, a set of seven compelling documentaries aboutpeople nding local solutions to important water-related problems in Asia and the Pacic.

Approach

Conceptualization. The Water Voices documentaryseries was designed to change mindsets and behaviorof people and communities, not just to create supportfor policy reform, but also to arm them with theknowledge and inspiration to take action to solve theirwater problems. It was intended for both broadcast andeducational distribution, targeting the general public.

The original plan was to produce six 10-minute high-quality mini-documentaries for presentation at the 3rdWorld Water Forum in March 2003. Each documentarywas to focus on themes supported by ADB in the

forum, i.e., water and poverty, water in cities, waterin small island countries, shared water resources, etc.Between nding the right stories to contracting theright lmmakers to the actual shooting and editingof videos, the plan evolved into delivering seven22-minute lms covering a wider range of topics.

Production. ADB conducted exhaustive research tond the right subjects for the documentaries. The resultwas a mix of stories from eight countries, coveringsuch diverse topics as water connection and supply,land tenure, coral reefs preservation, and stakeholderparticipation.

Each story was told from multiple perspectives, withthe lead charactersthe community, the water utilityhead, the worker from a nongovernment organization(NGO), the landowner, the slum organizer, etc.voicing their thoughts, explaining their actions, andhighlighting their roles in solving their water issues.The solutions showcased in the documentaries evolved

March 2012

Knowledge Management

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Residents of Barangay Sum-ag in Bacolod City, Philippines react during the audi-ence testing of Tinagong Paraiso (Hidden Paradise), one of the seven lms in theWater Voices documentary series.

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from the particular geographic, sociocultural, andpolitical circumstances of the protagonists.

Before launching the series, ADB conducted anotherstudy to test the documentaries impact on specicaudiences, i.e., policy makers, NGOs, heads of localgovernments, and poor communities. The audiencesfound the lms to have interesting storylines withstrong water messages, effective in opening their eyesto the potential of each person or community to solvewater problems.

The production process had its difculties, fromorganizing logistics to time-consuming debates overthe creative approach and understanding of the issues.In the end, though, those difculties made for betterlms.

Distribution.Of the seven originally planned, onlythree were prepared in time for the 3rd World WaterForum. All three received positive feedback.

The rest of the documentaries were launched in mid-2003. ADB signed broadcast agreements with 16television networks, including the Asian Broadcasting

Union, Televisin Espaola, and BBC World. The rstto be broadcasted was Waibulabula: Living Waters,which was shown on the BBC World program EarthReport in August 2003. These broadcasts generated asteady demand for Water Voices DVDs.

To extend their reach, the lms were translated intovarious languages including Cantonese, Filipino,Gujarati, Korean, Mandarin, Mongolian, and Tetum.

In 2007, the documentaries were uploaded to variousvideo-sharing websites, such as YouTube, and werefeatured at ADBs Water for All website, thus gaining abroader internet-based audience. ADBs Water for All

channel at YouTube has now reached 9,588 channelviews and 92,267 upload views. The lms are alsohosted by TheWaterChannel, an open-source onlinelibrary of water-related videos launched at the 5thWorld Water Forum in Istanbul in 2009.

Outreach

In late 2005, ADB conducted a survey to gauge theeffectiveness of its water awareness tools, i.e., website,documentaries, publications, media workshops,etc. Some 900 stakeholders (policy makers, mediapersonnel, public and private sector employees,researchers, etc.) participated. Results for the

documentaries were positive80% of respondentsfound them to be relevant; the documentaries are mostfrequently used as training material or as referencematerials for meetings with colleagues, and roughly76% have recommended the videos to colleagues. Infact, of the policy makers who have seen the lms, 87%have recommended them to others.

The Water Voices documentary series have beenscreened at various venues, among them a Waterexhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in2007, the Barcelona Asian Film Festival in 2008, and aa Water and Sanitation Film Night organized by OxfamNew Zealand in 2009.

ADB receives regular requests from educationalinstitutions, government agencies, NGOs, and privateindividuals for DVD copies of the documentaries and/or high-resolution versions to be used as teaching aidsor training materials. The latter include the HuayuPrimary School in Taipei,China, the Lee Kwan YewSchool of Public Policy of the National University ofSingapore; and the Shri Sadguru Dutta Dharmik EvamParmarthik Trust, an NGO in India.

Today, the Water Voices documentary series isconsidered one of ADBs most successful tools forraising water awareness not only in Asia and thePacic, but in other regions as well. Its success hasprompted ADB to produce more water documentaries.The lms have also been made available online and,like those under the Water Voices documentary series,have become popular tools for raising water awareness

The Asian Development Bank is dedicated to reducing

poverty in the Asia and Pacic region.

www.adb.org/knowledgeshowcases

Forfurtherinformation,contactMaria Christina S. Dueas, Knowlege Management Ofcer (cduenas@adb.org); Cezar Tigno, Water Website Manager (ctigno.consultant@adb.org); Steve Grifths, ADB

Consultant (sggmultimedia@yahoo.ca), Asian Development Bank.

RelatedLinks

The Knowledge Showcases highlight innovative

ideas from ADB technical assistance and other

knowledge products to promote further discussion

and research.

The views expressed in this publication are those of

the author(s) and do not necessarily reect the views

and policies of ADB or its Board of Governors or the

governments they represent.

Water Voices Documentary Series

Breaking Barriers (Bangladesh)

The Connection (Cambodia)

Hidden Paradise (Philippines)

Upstream Downstream (Thailand)

Waibulabula: Living Waters (Fiji Island)

Walking for Water (India)

Water Tomorrow (Kiribati and Tonga)

Water for All Youtube Channel

TheWaterChannel

http://www.thewaterchannel.tv/http://www.thewaterchannel.tv/http://adbweb/Water/Knowledge-Center/DVDs/Breaking-Barriers.asphttp://adbweb/Water/Knowledge-Center/DVDs/Connection.asphttp://adbweb/Water/Knowledge-Center/DVDs/Hidden-Paradise.asphttp://adbweb/Water/Knowledge-Center/DVDs/Upstream-Downstream.asphttp://adbweb/Water/Knowledge-Center/DVDs/Waibulabula-Waters.asphttp://adbweb/Water/Knowledge-Center/DVDs/Walking-Water.asphttp://adbweb/Water/Knowledge-Center/DVDs/Water-Tomorrow.asphttp://www.youtube.com/adbwaterhttp://www.thewaterchannel.tv/http://www.thewaterchannel.tv/http://www.youtube.com/adbwaterhttp://adbweb/Water/Knowledge-Center/DVDs/Water-Tomorrow.asphttp://adbweb/Water/Knowledge-Center/DVDs/Walking-Water.asphttp://adbweb/Water/Knowledge-Center/DVDs/Waibulabula-Waters.asphttp://adbweb/Water/Knowledge-Center/DVDs/Upstream-Downstream.asphttp://adbweb/Water/Knowledge-Center/DVDs/Hidden-Paradise.asphttp://adbweb/Water/Knowledge-Center/DVDs/Connection.asphttp://adbweb/Water/Knowledge-Center/DVDs/Breaking-Barriers.asphttp://www.thewaterchannel.tv/