Nepali journalist wins international award

A "Youth Reporter award" for journalists under the age of 21 has gone to Ms Suvecha Pant from Nepal for her article "Arsenic free water a distant dream for villagers".

The WASH Media Award was established by the WSSCC in 2002 to encourage and promote investigative reporting on water, sanitation and hygiene issues by developing country journalists. An international panel of judges evaluated more than 100 entries from print, radio and TV journalists from over 40 countries.

Egyptian journalist Nadia El-Awady has won the first ever WASH Media Award for an article that illustrates the impact of industrial pollution, sewage and waste on people’s health and dignity along the River Nile.

The "Trachoma Media award", sponsored by the International Trachoma Initiative (ITI) for reporting on trachoma-related issues, was awarded to Ms. Agatha Anthony Mshanga from Television Tanzania (TVT) for her TV documentation "The Trachoma Challenge in Dodoma Rural". Trachoma is a serious bacterial eye infection that can be waterborne.

The international panel of judges consisted of Mr Geoffrey Lean (UNEP‘s Our Planet, UK), Mr Nalaka Gunawardene (TVE Asia Pacific, Sri Lanka), Mr Robert Lamb (TVE/BBC Earth Report, UK), Mr Victor Bacchetta (Freelance journalist, Uruguay), Ms Claudia Mazzeo (Freelance journalist, Argentina) and Mr Seidick Abba (Panapress News Agency, Senegal). The panel was looking for originality of subject, quality of treatment and content, quality of investigation and research, the relevance of WASH issues and potential public impact.

As a result of the high quality of entries, WSSCC has decided to give Certificates of Appreciation to a further six journalists. They are: Mrs Yvonne Raharimanga from Madagascar (Radio feature “L’eau: garante de la santé publique et du développement durable” - “Water: guarantee for public health and sustainable development”), Mr Sergio Márquez from Mexico (“Las Dudas de Arcediano” - "Arcediano's doubts"), Ms Lina Samko from Russia (“To drink, or not to drink?”), Dr Asha Krishnakumar from India ("A Sanitation Emergency"), Mr Joachim Ezeji from Nigeria ("Nigeria and sustainable water development"), Mr Takawira Musara from Zimbabwe (“Disaster looms at Porta Farm”) and Mr Rene Ezpeleta Bartolo from the Philippines (“A River of Liquid Life”).