World Water Day celebrations--Coimbatore

CEE-Tamil Nadu
Coimbatore, India, India, 22 Mar 06

Splash--World Water Day--2006!

Water touches every aspect of nature and human life. There is increasing concern for the fate of water resources throughout the World, particularly in regions where water is scarce and where rivers, lakes and aquifers have been contaminated. Keeping this in mind, The United Nations General Assembly designated 22 March of each year as the World Day for Water. This has been conceived to be a day when the people of the world could come together, discuss and participate in efforts to face the challenges posed by water issues.

Realising the fact that the only way to achieve a truly integrated water resources management, will be through education, Centre for Environment Education, Tamil Nadu State Office in association with the Eureka Forbes Institute of Environment, organised a one-day programme at GRD Matriculation Higher Secondary School. Students between classes VI and IX and some the parents participated in the programme. Invitation was sent to all the parents of the school.

The programme started with the prayer by GRD School Students followed by the welcome address. Ms. Prabha, Principal, GRD School delivered the inaugural address in which she stressed on the importance of water conservation.

Mr. N. Ramjee, Scientist-in-charge, Centre for Environment Education performed a demonstration activity "A Precious Drop" that helped students and parents understand how much water on Earth. The demonstration made them understand that very little of the water available on earth is actually available for us to use. A brief discussion was held, on the need and ways to conserve the precious resource.

With UN declaring this year's theme as "Water and Culture", draws attention was drawn to the fact that there are as many ways people of various religions and faith view, use, and celebrate water across the world. The fact that water is considered sacred, in many religions and is used for performing different rites and ceremonies was recollected.

Mr. Shankar, Eureka Forbes Institute of Environment then dealt in detail the various sources and types contamination of water. He highlighted the various waterborne diseases that spread primarily due to un-safe drinking water and the various water purification methods. He also discussed the pros and cons of some commonly used methods like filtering, boiling, ionisation, chlorination, iodisation, UV-treatment, membrane-filter, etc.

Followed by this a presentation on " SODIS—Solar water Dis-infection System" was made by Mr. N. Ramjee. The fact this was a very cheap and effective way to improve the microbiological quality of drinking water was explained in detail.

The students then were questioned in the traditional Vidugadhai/ Pudhir Vilayaatu on various aspects on water. This helped many Tamil students, in the group feel and understand how rich Tamil language is and how water in this region has always been revered. This was followed by a small quiz on water.

An educational game in the popular "snakes and ladder" format was played to highlight the practices that every student can do. The negative habits brought them down and the positive habits took them to the goal faster. A brief discussion was held every time a student stepped on the site, to emphasize on the positive habits.

A Painting competition was held and the students were asked to draw on the theme "Water—My friend". The students participated in the above events very enthusiastically.

The star attraction of the programme included a body-painting session. Mr. Rajagopal, the Arts Teacher, from Government High School, Devaryapuram, painted small tattoos on the students' face and arms. Many a Parent, who had come to witness their children learn, also enjoyed this experience.

Eureka Forbes Institute of Environment distributed a palm shaped sticker emphasising the five major ways every child could participate in conserving water in their day-to-day life.

The winners of various competitions were given away prizes. The Principal expressed her keen interest on continuing similar programmes on environmental conservation. The programme ended with the Vote of Thanks by Ms. Nalini, Teacher, GRD Matriculation School.

Contact: Ramjee Nagarajan <n.ramjee@ceeindia.org>