Local Media Find Global Audience with Asia Water Wire
Joining the tradition of development news coverage that the Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency is recognized for, the Asia Water Wire was launched in July 2005 to give readers an online news source solely focused on the critical water issues facing Asia.
Over the last six months, 28 water-related stories have been published on the Asia Water Wire with more than 80 percent of those articles written by journalists who attended one of the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) media workshops on water.
MAKING WATER NEWS
With funding from ADB, the goals of the Asia Water Wire are three-fold:
- To provide journalists who have attended ADB's journalist water workshops and other ADB events an outlet for their articles to be read by wider audiences than their own media outlets;
- To encourage journalists to write on water issues in greater depth, which is supported by travel scholarships to examine water issues in neighboring countries;
- To increase the coverage and awareness towards water issues across Asia.
Asia Water Wire is a key output of a partnership between ADB and IPS to support and enhance the media's contribution to reforms in the water sector.
And it's easy to see why media attention on water issues is needed. Around two thirds of the world's population who lack safe water and sanitation facilities call Asia home. One third of Asians do not have access to safe water supplies. Even worse, one half do not have access to improved sanitation.
For these reasons, IPS made the perfect platform for the media to play their critical role in bringing about change in the water sector. By covering water issues for their media outlets and contributing those same articles to the Asia Water Wire, the media fosters the expressions and exchange of ideas and critical information to decision makers and the general public.
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DISASTER NEWS: STORMS, SPILLS, SHORTAGES
With so many natural disasters over the past 13 months, a number of the wire stories have examined the water-related elements of these disasters.
Ranjit Devraj, an Indian correspondent for IPS Asia-Pacific who attended the ADB's Delhi workshop in February 2004, wrote a wire article on how traditional fishing in Sri Lanka has been devastated by the Tsunami.
Another Tsunami-related story was by Marwaan Macan-Markar, who attended ADB's Phnom Penh workshop in February 2003 and wrote an article on how water borne diseases have been avoided in the Tsunami-affected countries. The article includes an extensive interview with the head of UNICEF's health and nutrition division in Indonesia.
The shutting-down of the city of Harbin's water supply in the People's Republic of China in November 2005 due to a chemical plant blast and pollution of the Songhua River is also examined in an article by Chinese journalist Wang Jiaquan. Wang Jiaquan looks at what lessons can be learned from Harbin's plight and the need for cities to establish alterative sources of water supply.
Zofeen Ebrahim, a freelance journalist who regularly writes for the Dawn newspaper in Pakistan, examined the shortage of drinking water and water pollution in the earthquake-affect areas of the Himalayan mountain regions in Pakistan.
Aside from natural disasters, there has been a regular flow of insightful articles on the Asia Water Wire during the second half of 2005. From waste management in East Jakarta to the water pollution facing Manchar Lake in Pakistan, genetically modified cops and water salinity in Uzbekistan, and the decline of the groundwater table in Dhaka, the Asia Water Wire is providing a valuable forum for incisive, thought-provoking and balanced stories about water.
The Asia Water Wire is always looking for new ideas. If you have a story idea and are interested in being commissioned, please email your ideas to coordinator@asiawaterwire.net.
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