Free Flow

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ater

ducation

and

nstitutional

evelopment

improve schools and communities. Inspired by his experiences,

he has even enrolled in a degree programme in Environment and

Natural Resource Management.

After winning a 2010 African Ministers’ Council on Water

AfricaSan Award in recognition of his outstanding work at Lake

Victoria School and beyond through the scaling up of the WASH

programme he helped develop, Oluka said: “I call upon the

Government of Uganda and other governments in Africa to also

include water education in school curricula at all levels so as to

make our pupils have positive behavioural change towards sanita-

tion, hygiene and sustainable usage of water.”

In many ways, his call has been heeded, and not just in Africa

where the USAID-Project WET WASH programme has ultimately

reached tens of thousands of teachers and millions of students

in 21 countries. UN Habitat has sponsored an adaptation of the

programme in five Latin American countries, as well as in India, and

other partners have extended the scope to include Brazil, Cambodia,

Afghanistan and Haiti. The materials are now available in English,

French, Spanish, Portuguese, Kiswahili, Kannada (a language of

India), Dari and French Creole – and most can be freely down-

loaded from the Project WET website.

As Oluka sees it, it makes sense to start with children to begin to

solve vexing water issues.

“Whenever there is a disaster as a result of water, whether short-

age or use of contaminated water, it is mainly the children who

suffer the consequences through diseases and even walking long

distances looking for water,” he noted. “And children are very excel-

lent in spreading news, even to the adults, about sustainable water

usage and control of diseases that are common in our communities.”

Water education in China

Not all of the water education programmes in which

Project WET is involved in internationally revolve around

water, sanitation and hygiene topics. China is one of

several countries in which Project WET has been invited

by institutional sponsor Nestlé Waters to share hands-

on methods to teach children about water conservation

and protection, as well as healthy hydration choices.

In partnership with Nestlé Waters and the Shanghai

Ministry of Education, Project WET China launched in

January 2010 with 17 Shanghai schools. Project WET

materials were translated into Chinese and implemented

through a train-the-trainer process, which has included

not only Project WET staff but also Nestlé Waters China

employees. With a focus on environmental education

and various after-school activities, the priority of the

programme is to raise local students’ awareness of the

importance of environmental protection – a topic of great

importance in China.

In China, too, educators and local partners have

taken the lessons learned in the classroom outside

of the school walls and into the community. On World

Water Day 2011, students taking part in Project WET

China broke the Guinness World Record for plastic

recycling, turning in nearly 9,000 kilograms of plastic

bottles in a single day. Subsequent community

projects have included a water activity carnival and

glass recycling activities.

Shanghai Project WET facilitators have begun

training teachers outside of the city to scale up the

programme. The programme launched in Beijing in

March 2012 and Hunan Province in August 2012, and

other NGOs from around China are now joining the

effort to bring water education to China.

Students in China play a game called ‘Blue Planet’ to learn how much water covers Earth

Aggrey Oluka with some of the waste collected by students for recycling

Images: Project WET Foundation