Raising awareness around critical water issues is vital, in whichever way possible, and every year the World Bank issues a water cartoon calendar that uses humour to shine a spotlight on the challenges around water supply, sanitation and hygiene, and their link to poverty reduction.

The 2017 Cartoon Calendar serves as a reminder that there is still much work to be done, and is a powerful tool to spread vital information about topics that are difficult to discuss in many cultures. It allows serious global concerns to be introduced to a larger audience in an informal manner through carefully crafted colourful cartoons with a tongue-in-cheek message.

Every year creative and passionate artists from across the globe are invited to illustrate the messages. This four cartoonists that collaborated in creating the 2017 calendar are:

  • Victor Ndula, an editorial cartoonist from Nairobi, Kenya, who is published daily under “Victor’s view,” has been drawing cartoons for around ten years and has won many local and international awards, including first prize at the Ranan Lurie International Cartoon Competition.
  • Wisnoe Lee, a Jakarta-based artist who specialises in posters, comics, and caricatures and has offered much in the way of artistic resource to national media agencies including television, radio, newspapers and magazines. Lee received the prestigious ‘Kosasih Awards’ for his unique cartoon characters, a tricycle driver named Gibug with his yellow cat Oncom.
  • Jesus Felix-Diaz, a Peruvian graphic artist who graduated from the Faculty of Arts of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, is the director of his own illustration school “La Cochera,” performs as a freelance artist, and also teaches digital animation.
  • Sudhir Dar is a famous cartoonists, based in New Delhi who has delighted millions of readers for almost forty years with a pocket cartoon called ‘This is it!’ Dar has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and several other prestigious publications worldwide, and has been awarded several national and international awards.

The Water Cartoon Calendar is definitely one of the most unconventional World Bank products, and we cannot wait to see the 2018 edition.

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