On June 11, at the 50th anniversary celebration of the International Hydrological Program (IHP), the Global Network of Water Museums was awarded for its “long-standing contribution to UNESCO-IHP”.
"I am truly honored to receive this prestigious recognition prize on behalf of all our members who, in various capacities, have contributed to the growth of the WAMU-NET since its foundations” - Director Eriberto Eulisse said on the occasion. “Since 2017, inspired by our network's Manifesto, our founding members have been always united in affirming the need to re-establish a new culture of water and promote sustainability education attributing a key role not only to water museums, but also interpretive centers, eco-museums, community-based museums, and living waters heritage sites which show a special relationship with local and indigenous communities”.
On the occasion of this prestigious award, among our founding members we would like to recall our mate Hugo Groenveld (1945-2025), who left us in May 2025. Without Hugo, affiliated with Kring Vrienden Den Bosch, WAMU-NET would not be here today to receive this prize from UNESCO.
Among the various events organized for the 50th Anniversary of IHP, WAMU-NET co-organised with ADASA the announcement of the MINA Water Memorial of Brasilia: a project designed by the notorious architect Oscar Niemeyer. For this reason, WAMU-NET’s 6th International Conference of water museums will take place in Brasilia in early November 2025.
On June 11th, the new WAMU-NET / MINA video was presented to mark this special announcement.
Watch the new video produced by ADASA to announce the MINA Water Memorial here
On June 12th, the side event organized by WAMU-NET and titled “The Voices of Water. Valuing ancient water cultures and hydro-technologies for a shared future” took place with the contribution of the following speakers: Alexander Otte (UNESCO-IHP), Eriberto Eulisse (WAMU-NET), Carola Hein and Lea Kayrouz (UNESCO Chair, TU Delft), Linda Lilienfeld (Let’s Talk About Water), Khalissa Ikhlef (LINKS, UNESCO), Philippe Pypaert (senior expert), Verbist Koen (UNESCO-IHP), Sara Ahmed (Living Waters Museum and WAMU-NET), Rogerio Rosso (ADASA-MINA), Sergio Ribeiro (CIRAT), and Eddy Moors (IHE and WAMU-NET).
With the occasion, the special issue of the Blue Papers on Ancient Hydro-Technologies - a volume curated by Carola Hein, Zuzanna Sliwinska and Matteo D’Agostino - including twenty-four inspiring papers on AHTs, was presented.
You can download for free the special issue here:
https://bookrxiv.com/index.php/b/catalog/book/57
To relaunch the ongoing Water Film Prize ‘Back to our Future’, Linda Lilienfeld presented the new video teaser for social media and also a new reel of ‘The Voices of Water’ (9:09’’), with cases from Iraq, Brazil, and Morocco, produced by Let’s Talk About Water.
Watch the new video teaser designed to relaunch ‘Back to our Future’ here
Watch the new reel ‘The Voices of Water’ (9:09’’) here
In memory of Hugo Groenveldt. Stricken by incurable illness, in the last months of his life, Hugo delighted in various readings and freely re-interpreted some verses of the poet Khalil Gibran, as follows: “The river must take the risk of entering the ocean, because only then will fear disappear. Then, the river will understand that it is not a matter of disappearing into the ocean, but of becoming the ocean.” We like to remember Hugo with his words, firmly believing that even from the ocean he will not stop supporting us in our upcoming projects and challenges.