Let’s start our newsletter journey here

This is Joep from Nextblue with Water Stories from the Heart, and it’s a very special one.

We’ve welcomed many new subscribers onto the Nextblue platform in recent weeks, and I wanted to take this opportunity to speak about our ideas for this newsletter.

My colleague Oscar, who is our newsletter editor, and I have had some good discussions how to bring our newsletter to the next level, well equipped for our community who is interested in local stories from delta regions across the world.

Storytelling as a powerful tool

We aim to bridge the gap between water research and experiences on the ground. We envision a world where researchers are sensitive to local contexts, and the voices of local communities are at the centre of discussions, especially in times of severe climate change.

Here at Nextblue, we believe storytelling has the power to do this, as it paints a picture of the real-life experiences of those directly affected by water challenges. Through our work, we strive to create a global community which values the stories behind the water.

How to create this global community?

We found out that a large part of our readers come from Twitter. We use this platform to interact with our and this is very helpful and inspiring. This is why we shifted our newsletter tool from Mailchimp to Revue which is part of Twitter and fit much more as an editorial tool.

On top of this, we have decided to bring together a strong and diverse team of editors. They will take turns writing the newsletter for you — from the Americas, Europe and Asia. I am very excited about this new format and I hope you appreciate learning from different angles on water and climate change issues.

Let’s start our newsletter journey here.

Take care,

Joep

Water Stories from the Heart

Changing the narrative on Dutch knowledge transfer

I have studied the implementation of the Dutch Delta Approach in Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the United States. I built relationships based on trust with the people whom I talked to and interviewed, allowing me to develop an attachment to the Dutch Delta Approach with a lot of empathy for the people who worked to make its transfer happen.

Quote of the week

We believe in the power of focus. The water and sanitation crisis is the second biggest killer of children under five years old. That’s why we chose WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) & HEALTH for the poorest communities in one region: South Asia.

From Max Foundation

Tweet of the week

Any questions or suggestions? Send us an email to hello@next.blue.