Zero Water Day Partnership (ZWDP) hosted an official online event Saving the World’s Water Towers Campaign: how children and students are taking action locally and globally for launch of the 2025 UN International Year of Glaciers Preservation.
The event supported the continued implementation of the Children’s Call to Action to protect mountain areas from climate change, outcomes of the ZWDP official event 2023 UN Water Conference including the launch of the Saving the World’s Water Towers campaign and creating walk waters in ZWDP partner schools which highlight water equity and community participation (SDG 6b).
Students from Sant’Anatolia di Narco, (Perugia, Italy) Blantyre Girls School, (Blantyre, Malawi), École Moser Nyon (Grens, Switzerland), Gunnison High and Middle Schools (Colorado, USA), Freie Waldorfschule Sorsum (Wennigsen, Germany) and Youth (Bogata, Columbia) made short presentations showcasing their projects and action for mountain change and water conservation. This was followed by a group discussion around particpating in key projects and actions for 2025 in support of the UN International Year of Glaciers Preservation including:
- ZWDP Schools Poster Initiative where schools will develop their own unique poster that showcases their projects and water walk, as well as 5 key messages for UN International Year of Glaciers Preservation,
- Rolling out and scaling up the ZWDP Water Partnership Ambassadors (WPA) Programme in collaborating withUNESCO Alpine World Heritage Site Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch. In early March 150 students from the Moser Ecole Nyon hosted their ‘Ice to Ice project week based on the WPA programme. Students visited the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to discuss how youth and schools could engage and participate in WMO Youth Strategy, as well as a visit to the UNESCO Alpine Heritage Centre in Naters Switzerland,
- ZWDP aims to establish ‘planetary health weather stations’ at its partner schools. Wanakha Central School, Bhutan was the first ZWDP partner school to build a planetary health weather station with plans to establish PHWS in Germany this summer. A PHWS is also planned for the mountains of the Swiss Alps to support WPA programme and education for sustainable mountain development,
- During the 2020-2021 school year Gunnison Middle School, with the support of Gunnison High School, Western Colorado University and the Gunnison Conservation District, created the Water Walk, a tour of 5 interpretive signs basded on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals along the City of Gunnison’s VanTuyl trail. Our story, told from students’ perspective, emphasizes the value of water and supports theMountains as the Water Towers of the World initiative. ZWDP aims to create similar water walks to begin a conversation that sparks further action to protect water in our community and beyond.
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