National Water Week
Every third week of October, National Water Week makes a splash across Australia, inspiring individuals, communities and organisations to work
together to build awareness around the value of water. Access to clean water is hugely
important to every aspect of our lives, and we must do our best to protect
our water environments and resources, and use water wisely.
Theme for 2019: It's Time to Change the World
The theme for National Water Week 2019 has been confirmed as "It's time to change the world". This has been adapted from the World's Largest Lesson on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, a campaign to introduce the 17 sustainable development goals to young people all over the world and unite them to take action to meet these goals by 2030.
The UN's Sustainable Development Goal #6 challenges us to work towards a world where everyone will have access to safe and clean water. Water plays an important part in many of the other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) too. Click on any of the boxes below to find out more about each SDG and the related targets.
What can I do for National Water Week?
There are several ways you can get involved in National Water Week this year. Below you'll find details about our short film competition, the Australian Stockholm Junior Water Prize (a water science competition for high school students), colouring pages, books about water and how you can change the world, lesson plans for the classroom and resources for social media.
Short Film Competition
This year we are running a short film competition for primary and high school students. We're asking the question:
What are some actions we can take to meet the UN's Sustainable Development Goals in Australia and/or globally? In your short film, you can focus on 1-2 goals and provide a set of actions people can take to help meet those goals and change the world.
Details about prizes will be announced soon!
Australian Stockholm Junior Water Prize
Help solve the world’s water challenges in Australia’s biggest water science competition! This year, Australia won the international competition for the first time in history which is pretty exciting. Entries are open to students 15-20 years old until 16 December. You can find all the documents and information you need below.
Colouring Pages
Learn about the Sustainable Development Goals with our colouring pages which you can download and print for use in the classroom or at home. We'd love to see how you’ve coloured them in! If you share photos on social media be sure to tag Australian Water Association or use the hashtag
#NationalWaterWeek so that we can share them too.
Book Club
Share stories about how to save water and how you can change the world with our exclusive selection of books. You can read them in the classroom or as bedtime stories.
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Author Lucy Bell will be sharing excerpts from her book in the lead up to National Water Week, like how to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in our oceans.
Get your copy here |
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In this book, Meg shares Water's journey through her life cycle, helping her to understand her place in the world and the way she interconnects with all living and non-living things.
Get your copy here |
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Lesson Plans
Changing the world starts in the classroom so here are some lesson plans that’ll help you make a splash this week.
Social Media Resources
Spread the word that it’s National Water Week with our suite of images for your social media pages.
Events around the country
Let us know what you're doing for National Water Week this year. We'll list it below so that your staff or the local community can get involved.
Partner with us
Become a National Water Week Sponsor and help us change the world. We’re looking for organisations to partner with us for our primary and high school short film competitions and for National Water Week as a whole. With a firm focus on the SDGs this year, this is a unique opportunity for your organisation to further demonstrate your support of the SDGs.
Download proposal
What we did in 2018
Last year, the Australian Water Association held a
colouring competition for primary school students and a
short film competition for both primary and high school students. Below are our 2018 competition winners.
Colouring competition
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| Grace, QLD |
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Abbey, Year 6, VIC
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Chloe, Year 4, VIC |
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Otis, Year 3, WA
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Short film competition
Hallidays Point Public School, Primary School Winner
Sumedh Joshi, High School Winner