A painting of a child playing with fish, turtles and unicorns in a world awash with water and vegetation has won the top prize in the 22nd International Children’s Painting Competition on the Environment run by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
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The work by 13-year-old Chiratchaya Kaeokamkong from Thailand emerged the winner out of almost 700,000 entries from 110 countries - a 10 per cent increase on the number of participants in 2012.
This year’s theme was Water: Where Does it Come From? in support of the 2013 UN International Year of Water Co-operation.
Ms. Kaeokamkong said she wanted her painting to show that “water is a very important resource, which we should conserve and keep clean for the next generation”.
Her prize included US$2,000 and an all-expenses-paid trip to attend the award ceremony, which takes place alongside UNEP’s Champions of the Earth award in New York in September.
Wesley Gong, 14, from the United States was the runner-up. His painting of a lake and the many species depending on it facing threats from industry was aimed at showing how pollution threatens the water that we all need to maintain life, said the UNEP in a statement.
Mr. Gong will receive US$1,000 and a trip to the award ceremony, along with six regional winners, who are: Jessica Qiu (US), Tina Doumit (Lebanon), Juan Diaz (Colombia), Ephraim Finapri (Nigeria), Nattamon Ninkham (Thailand), and Yevheniia Zakharchuk (Ukraine).
UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said the theme was chosen “to underline that water does not come from taps or even plastic bottles bought at the supermarket—it is generated by nature and supplied by forests and wetlands to rivers and lakes.”
“These budding young artists showed that they not only understand the crucial role of natural systems in providing this most fundamental of resources, but the impacts on humans and wildlife when we damage and degrade our water-generating environment in the name of progress,” he said.
The International Children’s Painting Competition is UNEP’s flagship art and environment event for children aged 6 and 14 years are eligible to enter the competition. Since 1991, it has received more than three million entries from children in over 190 countries. The competition is organized in partnership with the Japan-based Foundation for Global Peace and Environment (FGPE), Bayer and the Nikon Corporation.
“It’s impressive to see the children’s level of awareness of the global water issue and how they use their imagination to express this in pictures,” said Dr. Michael Preuss, head of Corporate Policy and Media Relations at Bayer. “The winning picture expresses the expectations of the younger generation and is an appeal to everyone to actively support the conservation of water.”
Ms. Tomoko Yano, Secretary General of FGPE, said the global winners “created supreme expressions with imaginative ideas, creative compositions and plenty of color schemes”.
“Children’s artworks fantastically show how precious water supports all life on the planet and keeps communities healthy. We hope that the selected artworks can widely enhance public awareness in the UN International Year of Water Cooperation,” she said.
Entries are now being sought for the 23rd competition, which will be themed around the issue of food waste. UNEP, in conjunction with the Food and Agriculture Organization, is running a campaign called Think.Eat.Save. Reduce Your Foodprint to cut the estimated one-third of all food lost or wasted every year.
“We look forward to the 23rd competition and how children will take up the challenge of depicting the irrationality of a world where one in seven go hungry, while globally we waste and lose at least one third of all the food produced,” said Mr. Steiner.
