Reporters from Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela Win Journalism Contest

AMBEV and IPS Announce the Winning Water Pieces

The winners of the Journalism Contest “Water: The Most Essential of All Natural Resources” were announced today by the three-member panel appointed to judge the entries. The five best pieces were written by journalists from four different countries, namely Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela.

The first prize in the competition organised by AMBEV and the news agency IPS Inter Press Service went to the piece “Y sigue haciendo agua” (Still Treading Water), submitted by Marina Aizen, a reporter for Viva Magazine, distributed with Argentina’s Clarín newspaper.The first place winner will receive a prize of US$ 5,000.

The article deals with the pollution of Argentina’s Riachuelo River, two years after a historical Supreme Court ruling that ordered the waterway’s decontamination. It was selected from a total of 218 stories submitted in the competition, which was aimed at raising awareness on water issues, in the understanding that water is the planet’s most important finite natural resource, a precondition for the existence of life, and essential for food security.

Second place, with a prize of US$ 3,000, went to Mexico’s Liliana Guadalupe Chávez, for her piece “Esto no es una pipa” (This Is Not a Pipe), which focuses on poor water supply and the corruption and political debates that surround the issue, published by the Mexican magazine Chilango.

The third prize, also worth US$ 3,000, was awarded to Mabel Sarmiento, of Venezuela’s Últimas Noticias newspaper, for her series of articles on the Guaire River cleanup project.

The three-member panel was formed by Ricardo Young, former president of ETHOS, Milton Seligman, Director of Corporate Relations and Communications at AMBEV, and Mario Lubetkin, IPS General Director.

“All the articles short-listed are excellent, and they all do justice to the important issue of water,” Ricardo Young said.

The fourth prize went to Flávia Junqueira, for her article “Vingança do Sarapuí” (Revenge of the Sarapuí River), featured in the Brazilian newspaper Jornal Extra.

The fifth prize was awarded to Argentine journalist Federico Guillermo Pedro Trofelli, for a report published in the newspaper Diario Tiempo Argentino under the title “Uno de cada diez argentinos toma agua contaminada con arsénico” (One Out of Ten Argentines Drinks Arsenic-Contaminated Water).

Neither the fourth nor fifth prize carries a monetary award.

All the winning pieces will be featured in a book to be published shortly.