Water underpins every aspect of life. It connects every living being on Earth, supporting health, growth, well-being and access to food and energy. Yet the 'water crisis' is often thought of in disconnected ways. For some it evokes water infrastructure; for others, access to water, river pollution, or the ever-increasing frequency and impacts of extreme events, such as droughts and floods. Attempts to engage with the public around the water crisis - through the media, documentaries, or public engagement activities for example - rarely provide a lens wide enough to show how these issues are connected, or detailed enough to convey how they translate into people's daily lives and what we - as individuals, communities, or countries - can do to address them.

Our Fair Water? exhibition aims to address these gaps, with a constructive path forward. It reveals what water (in)security means for different people, households and communities, and some of the global barriers to equity. It explores how researchers, community and policy makers are working together to shape a fairer water future through practical, achievable and scalable solutions in Africa and Asia.

Professor Katrina Charles and Alice Chautard

The Fair Water? exhibition is a collaboration of the REACH Water Security research programme and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Launched in Oxford, UK, in 2023-24, it is now available online and as an adaptable touring installation. It has recently been shown at major galleries in Bangladesh and the Philippines.