JREDS lanches Second Phase of Right to Water Project

27 August 2006

Under the patronage of H.E. Eng. Khalid Al-Irani, Jordanian Minister of Environment, The Royal Marine Conservation Society of Jordan (JREDS) launched the second phase of the Right to Water project in July, 2006. This project is funded by Heinrich BÖll Foundation (HBF), and aims at empowering the young leaders in the Right to Water topic and provide them with the needed skills to train others and act as a multiple factor effect.

Based on the fact that two thirds of the world’s population will be living with serious water shortage or no water at all by 2025, the Jordanian young leaders were the spark for a regional lobbying movement calling for the protection and implementation of the Right to Water concept.

During the first phase, the youth groups implemented 3 pilot initiatives, where more than 1 million people were approached and informed of the message.

One of those initiatives was establishing a network of connections with the key people in Rahma Village/ Wadi Araba of Jordan in order to raise the awareness of the local people about their rights to water and acted as facilitators between them and the official related government institutions in Aqaba.  The Jordanian volunteers held lots of workshops where they have discussed the United Nations’ concepts of the rights to water, and introduced water preserving techniques.
 
In the second youth initiative the group worked on spreading the concept to the largest number of the public through implementing several workshops at different schools in Amman and six Universities around the kingdom. Designing and printing different publications and give away.

The third initiative was producing a TV spot that holds the right to water message and was produced and advertised several times on the local Jordanian TV.

Coming to the second phase of this year’s project which aims at building on the previous experience and scale up the snowball effect that is already rolling. This phase will look at establishing Aqua-clubs at schools and universities which will allow a sustainable base for this concept to be spread more among youth generations adopting the youth to youth approach ‘multipliers factor’.
 
Based on the collective efforts, JREDS is looking forward to establish a main knowledge centre in Aqaba. It will be a resource centre for the right to water with permanent exhibition of presentations of books, films and any other products promoting the right to water. In addition to an online access to resource on the internet and a special website on resources on the right to water.

For more information on this project and other projects implemented through The Royal Marine Conservation Society, please visit JREDS website www.jreds.org .