Viva con Agua India and Welthungerhilfe India organised the Water for All, All for Water festival on October 6 & 7 at Max Mueller Bhavan in New Delhi. The festival was hosted in Partnership with Goethe-Institut and Max Mueller Bhavan. This was the first India edition of the internationally acclaimed ‘Art Creates Water Festival,’ known as Millerntor Gallery in Hamburg. This festival serves as a platform to bring together community change makers, climate activists, conservationists, environmentalists, policy leaders, behavioral change experts, thinkers, and creative practitioners; including children, youth and adults from across India and internationally.
“The realisation of sustainability requires worldwide societal change. Cultural exchange can open new perspectives on sustainability while giving impulses for politics, commerce, and society,” Dr. Marla Stukenberg, Regional Director South Asia, Goethe-Institut and Max Mueller Bhavan said. He further added the Goethe-Institut has a global goal of addressing diverse issues, approaches and solutions to sustainability and the way they are carried out. “We enable interactions between people from different cultural and societal contexts that gain special importance in relation to sustainability. Water is our basis of life, but water is becoming increasingly scarce. It is an important concern of the Goethe-Institut to draw attention to this problem and, within the framework of projects and artistic processes, to raise awareness for the careful use of one of the most important resources of our Earth,” Dr Stukenberg said.
The festival brought together art, books, conversations, dance, food, music, poetry, puppetry and theater over the course of two days. “Water is life and we all realise it. To get it reinforced through the universal language of art, music and culture and change our behaviour towards clear action was the objective of this festival,” said Nivedita Varshneya, Country Director, Welthungerhilfe India
As part of the festival, an exhibition was held featuring Welthungerhilfe India and Viva con Agua’s WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) initiatives in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar with partner non-profits such as Parmarth Samaj Sevi Sansthan, Samarthan- Centre for Development and others. Award-winning community workers were also present to share their work on the ground.
The visual art section featured portrayals of water from across India and internationally by artists such as Artreach, Aashti Miller, Anpu Varkey, Anuj Medhavi, and others. “I hope that this programme will serve to remind and propel us into action at many levels, and expand our understanding of ‘Water is a Human Right’,” said Mary Therese Kurkalang, festival curator.
