Wasserstiefel (Water boots), Roman Signer, 1986

Water is the most basic element necessary for life. Without it we have no hope. The Prix Pictet photographic competitions has set h2o as the theme for their 2008 photographic competition on sustainability, for which 18 photographers have been selected. We have chosen a few here that demonstrate the despair and hope that the stuff falling out of your tap can bring.

Sodo, Cravo, Haiti, 2007

Beginning with an optimistic image, Christian Cravo's shortlisted series Waters of Hope explores the sacred aspect of water - an element wasted by many yet revered by others. The underlying theme of these images is that water is the main source of life and not just an infrastructural source.

Refrigerator on Franklin Avenue, New Orleans, 2005

Chris Jordan used to be a corporate lawyer, but now he’s a full time photographer exploring the fragility of a society constructed around mass consumption. Good on him. His collections Katrina's Wake: Portraits of Loss from an Unnatural Disaster and Intolerable Beauty: Portraits of American Mass Consumption tackle the impact of American consumerism and the issues of personal accountability. The series makes links between the hurricane season's extraordinary severity and global warming, which America contributes to disproportionately its extravagant consumerism industrial practices. Almost 300,000 people lost everything they owned in the disaster and Jordan forces us to question whether we are all in some way responsible.

Water Tragedy: Climate Refugee of Bangladesh, Wasif, Bangladesh, 2007

Munem Wasif, at only 24, is already creating incredible images such as this as part of his Climate Refugee of Bangladesh series, which documents the plight of those forced to relocate as a result of flooding or drought. Wasif has worked as a photojournalist for the Daily Star, a leading English daily in Bangladesh, DrikNEWS and Agency VU. His photographs have been published in numerous national and international publications including Le Monde and Forum.

Failed garden of Eden, Reza Deghati, Baku, 1997

The Iranian photographer, Reza Deghati, has entered images that address the delicate balance between the four elements. He seeks to raise awareness of this universal balance, which is gradually fracturing. This image was taken in Baku the capital of Azerbaijan, a city that, at the beginning of the 20th century, supplied half world's oil and more recently was named by Forbes as the dirtiest in the world.

West End Boulevard, Polidori, New Orleans, 2005

Robert Polidori also takes the devastation of Hurricane Katrina as his subject in the series After the Flood. His photographs once had a more optimistic dimension however, as he planned to record the rebuilding of New Orleans. However, when he realised that this would never happen "as the city's economy vanished with the resident evacuation" he was only able to document the destruction caused.

Scene K1, Spinatsch, Series: Snow Management, Swiss Alps, 2005

Increasingly, the fine white powder that you carve up with your board/skis is coming from man-made rather than natural sources. Jules Spinatsch presents his eerie series Snow Management, which documents the extraordinary measures that resorts are taking to combat the effects of global warming in order to maintain the winter sports industry. Here he shows the heavy use of technology and huge energy consumption required nightly to turn water into snow.

You can vote on your favourite photography over at Prix Pictet’s website. The public vote will be taken into account when the judging panel make their decision in October.

 All images courtesy of Prix Pictet 2008