Blue Deal Peru wins the NWB award 2026
On Thursday 8th October, the NWB Award was presented for the fourth time. It is the NWB Fund's prize for the most compelling video on international water management work. Eleven projects submitted a video on this year's theme, 'reciprocity' in international cooperation. The winner is Blue Deal Peru, with the video “Reciprocity in Peru: water teaches us to learn together”!
Bert van Boggelen, director of the NWB Fund, announced the winner in Amersfoort during the celebration of the NWB Fund's 20th anniversary. Jelle Agema, member of the Blue Deal Peru team, could not stop smiling when he received the award: “This is a wonderful recognition for the work we do”.
Twenty years of the NWB Fund
The ceremony was part of a festive afternoon marking two decades of the NWB Fund. The fund was established by the NWB Bank, the bank for the Dutch water authorities, and invests in strengthening integrated water management around the world. Reciprocity, an equal exchange, is central to the fund's newly adopted strategy, and it was the thread running through the afternoon. Two guest speakers, Mirjam Vossen and Mpho Tutu, explored what mindset that requires in practice.
Never a one-way street
Those who go abroad to share knowledge rarely come back empty-handed: fresh insights for their own water authority, a different way of working, or personal growth. And it is about equality, working together from the conviction that both partners have just as much to give as to gain. International cooperation is never a one-way street. The eleven videos entered for the NWB Award showed that lesson in practice, each from a different corner of the world.
How the winner was chosen
An expert jury first reviewed all eleven entries and selected a shortlist of three videos in which the theme of reciprocity came across most strongly. Water authority employees and international partners around the world could then vote online, and they did: nearly 800 votes were cast from the Netherlands and far beyond. In Amersfoort, the audience in the room cast the final votes. Together, the digital votes and the votes in the room decided the winner. The NWB Fund thanks everyone who took the time to watch the videos and vote.
About the winning video
Blue Deal Peru works on water governance and integrated water resources management in northern Peru, particularly in the Chira-Piura and Tumbes river basins. In the winning video, Dutch and Peruvian practitioners show how reciprocity shapes their work. Through scientific research, hydrological modelling and inclusive governance, they learn from each other to address the impacts of climate change. No one learns alone, as the video puts it: when partners learn together, water no longer separates them but unites them. The Peruvian and Dutch teams produced the video jointly. For Blue Deal Peru, this is the second NWB Award: the partnership also won in 2023, with a video on water for rice cultivation in Piura.
The prize
The winning project receives 5,000 euros, a place on the Wall of Fame at the office of the Dutch Water Authorities in The Hague, and a feature in Waterkracht magazine.
More videos
The winning video is not the only one worth watching. On the award page you can see the entries for this year's NWB Award, each with its own story about learning in both directions.
Click here to see them all: > Watch the videos
