We are FCC - Nº18

The article “On the hunt for an up- surge of coronavirus in the wastewa- ter of Salamanca” published in June 2020 by the journalist Rosa María Domínguez, in La Gaceta de Sa- lamanca, was the winner of the 5th Aqualia Journalism Award “Compre- hensive water management in muni- cipalities” The work addresses the common challenge of researchers and water management companies to detect traces of COVID-19 in wastewater. Félix Parra, CEO of Aqualia, presen- ted the award at a ceremony held on June 3 at the headquarters of the Madrid Press Association (APM). The winner thanked both the jury and Aqualia for the award, and stressed the need for greater collaboration between the university, the company and the media in order to highlight information of interest to the public. The jury chose the winning work for the informative nature of the report, which, supported by data and proven sources, provides the public with in- formation of great relevance at the time of its publication in an easily un- derstandable way. Prizes valued at 6,000 euros The first runner-up prize went to To - más Díaz for his work “In search of fair and efficient water tariffs”, publi - shed in El Economista. Díaz recei- Rosa María Domínguez, the award-winner, with Félix Parra, CEO of Aqualia. A feature article on the detection of COVID-19 in waste water wins Aqualia’s 5th Journalism Award ved the award from Nemesio Rodrí- guez, president of the Federation of Spanish Press Associations (FAPE). Gabriel Cruz, a journalist from Infor- mativos Cuatro, was awarded the second runner-up prize for his pie- ce “From the reservoir to the tap at home, this is the way water travels”. Cristina Berasategui, head of Com- munications of the Spanish Associa- tion of Water Supply and Sanitation (AEAS), presented Gabriel with his award. The prizes are endowed with a total of 6,000 euros, of which 3,000 go to the winner and 1,500 to each of the runners-up. In this fifth edition of the contest, the jury recognized two Special Men- tions, with an economic endowment of 1,000 euros each. The first, to the radio work “Value and the cost of water”, by journalist Álvaro Gómez, for Onda Cero Segovia, for his con- tribution through the microphones to publicize the material and economic aspects of tap water. The second Spe- cial Mention was awarded to the work “Tagus, how to kill a river”, by Juan Calleja and Ricardo J. Rodrigues, for El País. The jury highlighted the work of the authors who “build a story di- vided into three well-documented ar- ticles, and raise to a national media a serious problem that affects one of the main rivers of our country”. A record figure The Award aims to highlight the im- portance of the management of the integral water cycle in daily life, in addition to recognizing the informati- ve work of journalists who contribute with their work to increase the cultu- re of water as a scarce and precious resource. A total of 65 journalistic works from audiovisual, print and di- gital media have been submitted to this edition of the contest, a record number since the launch of the con- test in 2016. Throughout the five edi - tions of the Award, 230 journalistic works have been submitted and 175 authors from 133 media outlets have participated. The Awards ceremony was presen- ted by Aqualia’s Director of Commu- nication and CSR, Juan Pablo Meri- no, and was held in front of a small number of attendees, complying with the health and safety measures es- tablished by the administrations. The event included a speech by Nemesio Rodríguez, who reflected on the jour - nalism-water binomial. The president of FAPE stressed that: “when there is a lot of information, what is really lacking is drinkable in- formation, that is to say, reliable”. In this sense, Rodríguez praised the quality of the entries submitted to this edition, which he referred to as “wor- ks of good drinking water journalism P E O P L E 28 P E O P L E