Raindrops Geneva Award 2011 Exhibition

In 2011, the IRHA and Photojournale held a competition for photographs showing the benefits and practical uses of rainwater harvesting. The third edition of IRHA’s Raindrops competition, Raindrops Geneva Award 2011, received almost 500 photographs and the winners were announced in December 2011.

The IRHA held its first exhibition of these photographs in Geneva to celebrate World Water Day 2012:

On Tuesday 20th and Wednesday 21st March, SWISSAID Geneva organised a roundtable called “L’eau cotée en bourse” (Water, publicly traded?) at the University of Geneva. The IRHA was invited to display 30 of the best Raindrops photographs as part of this event, helping to raise the awareness of the Geneva public to the practice and benefits of rainwater harvesting.

Each day, once the roundtable discussions were concluded, the participants and audience were invited to look round the Raindrops exhibition. Many people were drawn to the photographs and asked questions about the use of rainwater harvesting, which, due to the perceived abundance of water in Switzerland, is still an under-used practice.

After two busy evenings, the IRHA team left the University feeling they had improved many people’s perceptions of rainwater harvesting.

We are already planning more Raindrops exhibitions in the Geneva area for later in year, where we hope to build on the successes of this first one. Information about future exhibitions will be announced on our website and Facebook page – maybe we’ll see you there?!

There are more photographs from this event in the Raindrops Geneva Award 2011 Exhibition photo gallery.

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