This statement – an adaptation of the central promise of Agenda 2030 for mankind – is the theme for 2019 World Water Day celebrated on March 22nd. The message of “leaving no one behind” is all the more topical this year since it is deeply rooted in Sustainable Development Goal n.6, which aims to ensure availability and sustainable management of water for all by 2030.
This year’s theme suits perfectly the core values of the Global Network of Water Museums (WAMU-NET). The water awareness and educational activities performed by its members are aimed at reinstating a new relationship between humanity and water: a new “sense of civilization” which helps to reconnect every single person to water, in all its dimensions, including social, cultural, artistic, and spiritual dimensions.
Indeed WAMU-NET, which has been recognised formally as a UNESCO-IHP initiative in June 2018, is not involved in the implementation of new regulations or projects to improve water access, but in the achievement of enhanced perceptions and awareness linked to clean water, that is, about the importance of keeping safe and clean water in a context of increasing pollution and scarcity at global level.
When 2.1 billion people in the world still live without safe water at home, when one in four primary schools on the planet has no drinking water service, when around 4 billion people – nearly two-thirds of world’s population – experience severe water scarcity during at least one month per year, and when 700 million people worldwide can be displaced by intense water scarcity by 2030, “awareness” at every level becomes of paramount importance in achieving the ambitious goal set by 2030: water for all.
Thus, when WAMU-NET affiliated members are teaching and educating people all over the world through cultural and artistic activities, and are striving to inspire a new sense of water civilization by reaching the hearts and minds of approximately 4 million visitors every year, then also Global Network of Water Museums’ activities can be listed among substantial contributions of “leaving no one behind”.
The toolkit of the Communication Campaign shared by all WAMU-NET members is available at: old.watermuseums.net