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W
ater
E
ducation
and
I
nstitutional
D
evelopment
In addition to regular contact by videoconference, students
exchange environmental information related to the use of water
resources in their communities through letters and pictures on the
subject of ‘water in my life’.
In its first phase of implementation, the programme is limited to
school communities in two cities: Frutal, Minas Gerais, Brazil which
hosts the City of Waters, where the Water Education programme
is consolidated, and Praia, Cape Verde, as it is the capital of Cape
Verde, a Portuguese-speaking country in Africa chosen as pilot for
the programme outside Brazil.
Water for Life
The Water for Life programme is based on the principles and tenets of
sustainability. Its purpose is to restore the balance between develop-
ment and the improvement of living standards of the population on
one hand, and conservation of natural water resources on the other.
Bearing in mind the multifarious nature of this issue and seeking to
adopt a holistic approach, the programme is founded on five pillars of
sustainability: environmental, social, economic, cultural and urban.
The river basin has been chosen as the unit of coverage for the
programme because it is the locus in which all the components of
growth, development and maintenance of society are interdependent.
The river basin exhibits synergistic interaction between the elements
of water, soil, flora, fauna and human beings – for better or worse.
The Water for Life programme aims, therefore, at building a
model for sustainable management of river basins which is compre-
hensive, inclusive and participatory – a tool that should allow an
understanding of the social-environmental reality of a region, its
problems and conflicts, potentialities and challenges; and enable
the creation of a framework of solutions to restore the conditions of
environmental equilibrium and social well-being.
This proposal of a model for sustainable manage-
ment of water resources, however, has been designed
by the HidroEX International Centre with a particular
approach, as it is centred in the local history and culture
itself. It has taken into account that it is only possible
to protect and take care of what you know. Therefore,
instead of offering established projects or standardized
models, the community is invited to rediscover its own
history and raise good practices and popular lore, which
may have been long forgotten.
Once this agenda of historical investigation of the
town and its surroundings has been implemented, a
new reality arises from a better understanding of the
relationship between nature – especially water – and
society. In this way, the citizen discovers him or herself
as an essential agent, capable of creating and changing
the social development.
Most of all, the programme has worked to build
a model of sustainable life, fostering changes from
harmful behaviour into healthy attitudes through
everyday actions taken up – not imposed – by the
population itself. This process defines pro-active envi-
ronmental education, which consists in leading human
beings to understand the systemic functioning of their
space and to develop an integrated vision of life.
Underpinned by the new scientific and technical knowl-
edge acquired by the programme, the educational and
cultural work gains importance in fostering actions that
approach scientific knowledge in the daily lives of inhabit-
ants, showing the commitment of the proposal to a vision
that connects science to popular lore and customs –a safe
way to face those challenges arising from the need to build
a society model based on sustainability.
The actions which have been undertaken within the
Water for Life programme are:
• recovery and long-term conservation of soils and
water resources
• forest recovery in Permanent Preservation Areas,
Legal Reserves and ecological corridors
• undertaking of an agroecological zoning
planning process
• development of a forest inventory of the watershed
• quantification and description of forest fragments
and establishment of a genetic conservation system
• preparation of a detailed description of river
environments
and inventory of aquatic biodiversity
• identification of alternatives to incentives and
payment for environmental services
• development of work towards sustainable urban
water management on a number of fronts
• mapping of waterborne diseases
• development of the study
The Impact of Education
on Water Management
• recovery of the history and culture of water in
the region
• sensitizing, raising awareness, mobilizing and
organizing the local community to the overall long-
term goals of the project.
The Water for Life programme helps communities rediscover their history and
identify good practices for sustainable development and conservation
Image: Tânia Brito