Global Water Crisis Workshops

By Nayesha Krishna|April 17, 2019

The newly formed TH environmental club organized two workshops on the Global Sustainability Water Crisis. These were part of the UNIS-UN and organized on March 6th, the day of Cultural Exchange for the visiting students at UNIS. Over 50 students from 15 countries and 13 schools signed up for the two workshops, which were the most popular among the other workshops being offered. The workshop was organized and conducted entirely by the T1s. The two, one hour, workshops revolved around three presentations which were followed by interactive sessions. The workshops started with a quick overview of the Global Water Crisis, followed by a presentation on the challenges of access to clean drinking water for people in many parts of the developing world, by the club president (Nayesha Krishna). Participants were intrigued to learn that there are high water stress areas in each and every continent, including the U.S. This was followed by a presentation by the president of the club on the issue of access of clean drinking water and sanitation. Some interesting facts that came out in the presentation included:

2 billion people live without clean drinking water
The crisis only starts with water, but water affects every aspect of life, Health, Education, Food security.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, women send 2 million hours of fetching water than any other activity in the day.
Did you know that dirty water kills a child every 19 seconds due to a water-borne disease?

To liven up the proceedings, a short film was shown, depicting A Day in the life of a girl in Ethiopia and her morning chores, which included all the problems she faced every day when trekking miles to fetch water. The film triggered a very lively discussion among the participants, who shared experiences from their countries, and also their schools when they had organized water Walk-A-Thons.

A short dramatic video on Climate Change and its impact on the global water crisis brought out many points, including how rising global temperatures would exacerbate water scarcity. The presentation also brought out the flip side of the global water crisis– which is flooding and rise in sea levels. This led to a discussion on how the world needs to manage water resources better.

Sneh Thapa then spoke about, forced migration, that is taking place in countries like Chad, Niger, Madagascar, Ethiopia, and Syria because of prolonged periods of droughts and water scarcity and highlighted the future conflicts over water resources that could erupt between countries. As a result of competition over the scarce natural resources, particularly farmland and water, leading to conflicts.

Emeraude Ngyema then spoke to the participants about the water situation in Gabon, which led to a discussion on water solutions, including technologies to reduce water waste in irrigation, closed water filtration systems and desalination.

Small groups then brainstormed on all the issues that had come up during the workshop and came up with ideas for an Action Plan to address the Water Crisis, focusing on steps that each individual and every community could take.

So if you want to make a difference and reduce your water footprint, the TH Environment club invites you to take up these 3 challenges for a month!