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FACTS AND FIGURES ABOUT WATER AND YOUTH The United Nations General Assembly defined ‘youth’, as those persons falling between the ages of 15 and 24 years inclusive. Poverty affects young people in a striking and personal manner. A young girl in Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, living in extreme poverty cannot attend school because she needs to fetch water for her family. As freshwater becomes scarce and air quality deteriorates, natural resources have become a source of conflict. While biological systems and biodiversity continue to decline, young people face an uncertain future. In many areas around the world, young people are initiating and leading projects to increase the availability of and people’s access to clean water through community projects. Young people can be part of the local teams that monitor and assess public resources. Using resources such as outcomes of water Conferences, local Global Environmental Outlooks and recommendations in Agenda 21, young people can assist in the development of local resource use plans and assessments. Established in 1989 by a group of undergraduate students in Bhutan, the ‘Sherubtse Nature Club’ does things like monitoring source of drinking water, cleaning and monitoring tanks, and cleaning the surroundings of water sources at a local level. In 2002, the club cleaned the water tanks supplying their college community and the local area. Before this there had been a typhoid outbreak every year, but as a result of the group’s water sources monitoring, there has been a substantial decrease in the number of typhoid cases in the community. In the province of Cebu, Philippines, the World Water Corporation supplies water to about 100,000 people through a programme that combines solar-powered water pumping technology with locally based distribution systems. A total of 110 villages (or barangays) in 26 municipalities will be provided with the solar powered water pumping systems under a pay for service method. Youth groups are trained to install the systems in each village and to set up delivery. Funding comes from two major banks, which provide loans for installation and delivery estimated at US$10 million. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) supports the ‘Youth Broadcasting Initiative’ that works with 20 youth groups around Somalia, providing training to young people in radio and video production. The programme provides this training under the condition that those who take part go on to produce programmes for their communities that focus on the key issues of concern to young people. These range from simple issues such as access to basic health services, the threat of malaria, or preserving and properly using the limited water resources available in communities, to the more controversial issues of female genital mutilation and the risks of HIV/AIDS.
Information from: Source: UNESCO Water Portal, August 2005
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