Ivanise Aparecida Pachane Milanez, Assessora de Comunicação da Agência das Bacias PCJ, Brazil, São Paulo, Piracicaba.

What water-themed work have you been working on (reporting, editing research)?

We work with the management of water resources in the PCJ Basins. Since the Agency PCJ Basins manages the resources of the PCJ charges for the use of water resources.

What areas of your work in water have generated the most significant public response?

The most significant responses that we respect the work of the PCJ Basins Agency as a whole, that is, our print publications produced in staff are very well accepted by an audience that we call specialized, ie, people who know the theme of our work.

What barriers are there to reporting on environment and sustainable development issues in your region (eg. lack of public interest, censorship, pressure from advertisers etc)?

The barriers are just one of those you cite, namely the lack of interest, because environmental issues are not yet a major concern of city managers. We also have a shortage of professionals who understand what we do; unfortunately, not always the newspapers, radio, TV and internet have on their staff who can transform our text into something understandable to the public.

What is tough to sell to editors in water/sustainable development/environment? Why do you think this is the case? Please detail with specific examples from your experience

The harder it is to convey information in general water. See, for example, that this year we live a very severe drought, then it was marked, but when we had water in larger quantity, the theme was not always ruled. What occurs is that the media does not anticipate it, it reports the fact, that is, drought even already having been forecast was reported only when the worst was already happening.

Note that in October 2013 the situation was difficult enough, but only in February, March 2014 is the large printed decided to highlight the issue. And as we go through an election period this year it was not put into debate with emphasis, but only mentioned because it was necessary to keep a scenario that actually did not represent the reality.

What do you feel has been successful and unsuccessful in your work in this area? Please detail with specific examples from your experience

Overall I feel I have been successful, but the effort for this is very great, the staff wear is very large. For example in 2013 launched a Communication prize to succeed we had entered need to spend days and days calling people, explaining what we do, encouraging them to write and send us materials, it really is not easy.

Please present your proposals for communications and media projects. This is your chance to pitch the UN.

Our communication proposals relate to the placement of our work in the mainstream media, without for that we pay, we have a large volume of printed and digital material that can be accessed on our website. We still have the program WATER VALUE produced for the internet we are trying to insert into educational channels and do not cover for it, but not easy, two-year program, we got only 5 channels and also the visibility is very small. We would like to develop a large media plan to also cover the 5 million inhabitants of the PCJ Basins - radio, TV, newspapers, websites, but the amount to be invested is usually very high and our priorities are not always the communication, because we have goals to be achieved for example, up to 100% of treated sewage in the PCJ Basins 2015, which requires a lot of investment by the sanitation of the PCJ Basins, ie, the funds raised with the PCJ charges for water use are mostly aimed at quality improvement projects of water for all, which I consider very important.

Currently we have dedicated ourselves to further environmental education projects for educators and teachers, from January 2015 will be produced videos with specific topics for children, adolescents and young people are the greatest potential to transform society in understanding the educators coordinating this project therefore decided to invest.

You are expected to produce some work at the conference. What do you plan to do?

No, participate to meet and exchange experiences.

Anything to add? Suggestions for questions to add to the debate would be welcome.

It would be interesting to understand how countries deal with the drought.