These five personal views of one vital element - water - are selected from nearly 20,000 entries to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) third international competition. Amateur and professional, young and old, photographers from every continent and nearly every country in the world were invited to 'send a message into the new millennium'. Their response underlines both the richness of their talent and the urgency of the message. The images combine to form a unique, arresting snapshot of the state of our environment at a single moment in time.

Photos: Starting from bottom left - The Philippines: Floating kids in Manila Bay, recycling garbage, by Harmut Schwarzback.
Top centre - Germany: Bicycle scrap in the lake, 80 miles outside Berlin, by Thomas Wolke.
Middle centre - India: Liquid poison, chemical emissions into a reservoir, by Dev Nayak.
Bottom right - USA: Companions in the mist, in Orlando, Florida, by Claudio Bacinello.
Top right - Brazil: Death Sea, oil slick hauled in with the nets, by Ana Carolina SM Fernandes.

(All pictures courtesy of Still Pictures / UNEP Photographer).