Hello all,
I hope your weekend is going well.
Over the past weeks, we have successfully organised a two-day training on storytelling with 20 participants from Bangladesh. This training is the first step in training local communities, co-producing stories with them, and sharing them with decisionmakers during online events and campaigns.
Following the training, the participants began the journey of crafting their stories. Farzana Rahman worked on a compelling story about the challenges facing rivers in Dhaka. She spoke with many citizens who depend on these rivers for their livelihood.
Mr. Abdul Wahab has been ferrying people across the Buriganga River in Dhaka for 8 years. He is a 55-year-old boatman who migrated from coastal Barisal due to increasing natural hazardous events such as floods, cyclones, and storm surges.
"This boat is home to me", he said. "I live in the Buriganga for the last 8 years. I and the other homeless boatmen take baths here. I get rashes on my skin after using this water. But I do not have any other way because this river is both my home and my livelihood. I cannot leave this river. Initially, the odour was intolerable to me but now I have gotten used to it."
This story is one of a collection from 20 journalists across all regions of Bangladesh, portraying people, struggles, and inspiring actions for dealing with climate change. We will release these stories during an online event in September.
I am very glad we can support these communities and journalists to create unique stories and amplify their voices. Stay tuned to read the stories in September!
Webinar
Nextblue is involved in The Urbanising Deltas of the World programme by Dutch Research Council (NWO). Together with our partner organisations, we invite you to participate in our upcoming webinar:
Building bridges for delta interventions: Crossing scales, domains and engaging local stakeholders using the MOTA and WaterApps tools.
Our team organizes an international seminar to showcase the key innovations and facilitate a discussion with experts and stakeholders on how participatory tools and innovations contribute to planning and management practices in river deltas.
With a strong focus on practical use of delta innovations, the webinar consists of presentations, panel discussion and impact stories presented as a short video clip.
If you are interested, please read our programme and sign-up here.
Water Story
A testimony of water challenges in south-east Asia
Urban growth, temperature rise and melting glaciers threaten river deltas around the world. South-east Asia – from India to China – in particular will be severely affected. Large numbers of people live in poverty, countries are densely-populated and coastlines are long. According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the chance that people in this region will be affected by water-related disasters is about 25 times greater than in Europe. How are people tackling water challenges in Asia?
Video of the Week
Tweet of the Week
Hello. We're Nextblue.
Nextblue is a storytelling platform covering the intersection between water and climate change.
Together, we can empower the voices of communities in the heart of delta regions around the world.
If you have any questions or suggestions for this newsletter, Nextblue, or want to propose your own story on water and climate change. Just send an email to joep@next.blue.
Keep the blue side up.
Joep
