Students' initiative on water conservation

Awareness Programme

Children are surely the future of the country and the development of a nation lies on their shoulders, definitely. Keeping this in mind, the Rotary International organised an inter-school skit competition in Delhi to spread awareness about water conservation, an issue which now bothers a lot of people.

The event, which was supported by UNESCO, was attended by some of the leading stakeholders in the field of water conservation, including the Minister for Water Resources, Harish Rawat and Shigery Aoyagi, director, South East Asia, UNESCO who was present to felicitate the winners of the inter-school skit competition.

Since the UN declared ‘clean water as a fundamental right’ for everyone in 2010 the competition involved the presentation of a series of short skits, built around the theme Jal Hai to Kal Hai, executed and performed by students from some of the most prominent schools of Delhi like Apeejay, Sheikh Sarai; Delhi Public School, R K Puram, Summerfield School; Amity International, Mayur Vihar; Bal Bharti Public School and CRPF School, Rohini, etc.

G S Singhvi of Rotary stated that, “We wanted to draw attention to the fact that one of the biggest injustices we have done to this country is to make it water scarce. To highlight the magnitude of water scarcity and its consequences leading to diseases like polio, we organised this competition among school students in Delhi.”

Rotary’s India National PolioPlus Committee member Raman Bhatia observed, “These children are not only the future of our country but also a great source of strength when we want to mobilise masses. Like polio eradication, clean drinking water and proper sanitation also needs to be a people’s movement. Awareness spreads like wild fire if children take up the cause.”

The initiative is a part of Rotary’s efforts to engage young minds to highlight the issue of conserving water. “Through events like these, we also want to spread awareness about the importance of clean drinking water and sanitation, particularly in preventing diseases that thrive on contaminated water and unsanitary waste disposal,” he further added.

India is considered a water-stressed nation. To ensure that there is abundant water available for everyone in the country, we not only have to harness our vast rivers and water bodies but also realise the crucial importance of water conservation. Events like Jal Hai to Kal Hai, will surely nurture young advocates who will be ambassadors of change in turning the tide of water shortages and promoting water conservation.