International Education Day: when OiEau raises awareness of water issues among the younger generation

Published on 01/24/24

In 2018, the United Nations General Assembly declared 24 January International Day of Education. This year's theme is "Learning for lasting peace".

Access to education is one of the United Nations' 17 sustainable development goals, as is access to water and sanitation.

The very basis of public health, with a major role in protecting the environment, access to sanitation and drinking water is a catalyst for all aspects of sustainable development and provides the necessary resilience against the effects of climate change. It is essential to achieving the reduction of poverty, hunger, inequality, health, well-being and even peace in certain regions where tensions over water exist.

It is important to educate today's children about the challenges of water, to pass on to them the value of this resource, in order to, as tomorrow's adults, will have the right reflexes and habits to put in place better water management.

To achieve this, OiEau works with young people in numerous projects to raise their awareness of these issues, both in France and abroad:

  • The Bio-plateaux project: One of its three objectives is to raise awareness of the challenges of cross-border river basins, particularly among local populations. This has resulted in the organisation of water classes and participatory science workshops, based on educational materials produced with associations and partners in the three territories.
  • The FEXTE project in Bolivia. This project helped to raise awareness of IWRM through water classes and the provision of a guide to replicate the experience in different regions of the country.

Our experts also take part in events aimed at raising awareness of the challenges of water and the water industry among young people, such as the "Village de l'eau" in Bordeaux in 2023:

For the International Office for Water, it is important to raise awareness among young people and inform them of the existence of professions related to water and aquatic environments, which are little known to the general public. With over 30 years' experience in training water professionals, passing on knowledge is in our DNA. That's why it's so important for us to take part in this event, and to raise awareness of these professions among the workers of tomorrow.
Yann Laroye

GEMAPI training manager

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