Posted by Sudbury Northern Life
Cambrian College will be the venue for an awareness session on water and sanitation issues in developing countries and in Canada, led by the International Secretariat for Water (ISW).
The session, which will be held on Friday, Jan. 16, from 9:30 to 11 a.m. in room 2226 at Cambrian's Barrydowne campus, is part of the ISW's conference tour, which will make stops at colleges throughout Canada.
The tour, entitled "Water a source of solidarity among citizens: from local to global," was organized by the International Secretariat for Water within the framework of the Canadian International Development Agency's public engagement program and in collaboration with the Government of Quebec and the Fonds d'action québécois pour le développement durable.
The session will illustrate water and sanitation issues, and will include videos made by young people between the ages of 18 and 30 from many parts of the world, videotaped interviews with young people actively involved in their communities, and extracts of documentaries presenting different aspects of water-related problems and their solutions in Canada and other countries.
The objective of the tour is to raise young Canadians' awareness of water and sanitation problems at home and abroad, but also to motivate them to get involved in water-related actions in their region or in international co-operation projects.
The ISW tour will also provide Canadian students with the opportunity to gather ideas and suggestions that will be presented at the fifth World Water Forum in Istanbul in March. As part of the ISW's national competition, students will be invited to submit a 500-word essay expressing their message about water. One student will also be selected to take part in the World Water Forum as part of the Canadian delegation and to participate in ISW activities.
The ISW is an international non-governmental organization created in 1990 during the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade. Since 2006, ISW has been working with young people in Canada, and around the world in the context of the "A Celebration of Lakes and Rivers" program.
This program engages the young by offering them the opportunity for direct citizen involvement in actions favouring water development issues in both domestic and international co-operation projects. The ISW is sharing the results of its projects from the past three years during its national tour.
