Water Witness

Want to use your skills to tackle the global water crisis?
We're recruiting two roles in our small but mighty team- a Business Support Officer (part time) and an International Programmes Officer (full time.)
Full details on the roles, salaries, and how to apply at our website www.waterwitness.org/work-with-us

The Latin Connections Film Festival 2026 is soon to kick off with Mining Cinema: Who Pays the Cost of Extraction?

This programme features Choropampa (2002) and Peru (1932), two landmark films united by their unflinching look at the human and environmental toll of mining. It will be followed by a Q&A with director Ernesto Cabellos and Peruvian anthropologist Sandra Rodríguez.

📅 Saturday, 16th May
🕢 7:00 p.m.
📍 Edinburgh Cine and Video Society
🎟️ Free entry. booking required
https://cinemaattic.com/event/miningcinema/

Join us in Oxford on 21st April for our event Inequality by the Gallon: the hidden water powering our lives

11am-1230pm, The Symposium Room, 50 Market St, Oxford
REGISTER HERE: https://luma.com/sm3pfz7q

Everyday products rely on vast amounts of hidden water. From the electronics we use to the food we eat, global supply chains often depend on water resources far from where those products are consumed. In many cases, the impacts are felt most acutely by communities in the Global South. This interactive session explores the hidden water behind everyday consumption and its links to extractivism and water injustice. The session will also introduce the Fair Water Action Fund, which supports decolonial and community led responses to water injustice, in a changing geopolitical context where civil society and community leaders face risks for speaking out, and traditional sources of funding and support are drying up.

What's the story behind the cocoa in our chocolate?
Read Water Witness' latest research on human rights and environmental risks for cocoa farmers in Cote D'Ivoire:
https://waterwitness.org/act-now/cocoa-cote-d-ivoire

Act now to help bring in stronger rules for businesses on protecting water, people and nature in the places they grow the products they profit from.
www.waterwitness.org/act-now

Let's talk about cocoa.
It's what makes chocolate, chocolate.
Small farmers in the West African nation of Côte d'Ivoire are the world’s leading cocoa producers- their cocoa is in every major chocolate brand that makes the treats we love.

However, there are serious human rights concerns in cocoa production zones in Côte d'Ivoire - where people are drinking unsafe water, and don’t have somewhere safe and decent to use the toilet.
Meanwhile, climate change is affecting their crops, leaving them with diseased crops and a loss of income. In 2024, the drop in cocoa production was so extreme, that ‘chocolate shortages’ were widely reported, and prices rocketed for consumers.
Some farmers reported that they could no longer afford school fees, and had to take their children out of school to work on the farm.

We’re being sold inequality by the gallon.
No-one should live without access to the human rights to water and sanitation. Demand a fair water footprint: www.waterwitness.org/act-now

Check out this interview with Water Witness researcher, Justina Muchelenje on Water.day- a new online magazine for youth interested in water and climate!
https://www.water.day/interviews/justina-muchelenje

Today is World Water Day, with the theme of 'Gender and Water'.

When the water used to grow our food and produce our goods is used unfairly and unsustainably, communities lose out. And often it is women and girls who face the hardest impacts when the human rights to clean, safe water and decent sanitation are not respected, and when climate vulnerabilities are increased by unsustainable water use for global supply chains.

- Women and girls worldwide spend 250million hours a day collecting water, 3x more than men and boys: what opportunities does that take them away from, in education, paid employment or community leadership?

- Women are 14 times more likely to die in climate-related disasters like floods and droughts

- Research shows that increased female participation in decision-making leads to better water management outcomes- but only about 15% of national-level environmental sector ministries among UN Member States are led by women.

In our image gallery, meet the women community leaders, healthcare workers and farmers, working for water security, climate resilience and human rights, including Linda, Angella and Gloria in Malawi, and Adelaida in Peru.

Email your MP today to call for a UK Business, Human Rights and Environment Act- which would introduce a duty on companies to prevent human rights and environmental harms in their supply chains: www.waterwitness.org/act-now