3. November 2011.

"Water for Life" Book and Manual Presented

The manual and book titled "Water for Life" were presented today at a ceremony during which students from 13 primary schools across BiH received awards for their projects in the field of water protection. Anne-Claire Dufay, UNICEF Deputy Representative for Bosnia, Biljana Čamur, Assistant Minister of Civil Affairs, Sinisa Šešum, Senior Programme Officer of UNESCO and Goran Vukmir, head of the Cluster for Energy and Environment at UNDP emphasized the significance of new approaches to teaching youth about the importance of water, which is a concrete result of a series of projects that the students themselves defined. Representatives of UN agencies have praised the exceptional interests of all schools that participated in the program and students' creativity in solving problems relating to their peers and communities.

Starting this year the manual and book "Water for Life” will be used as a handy tool in the curriculum in primary and secondary schools, and represents a novelty in approach to teaching younger generations about the importance of the issue of water.

Even though there are differences in the way people relate to water worldwide, we now all recognize its value and that it holds a central place in people's lives. This is why the UN General Assembly, under the slogan "Water for Life" declared the period 2005 - 2015 as the decade of water.

Over one hundred children and teachers from primary schools were present at today's ceremony. In addition to the presentation of manuals and books, the activities of the MDG-F Programme Democratic Economic Governance of Water Access and the work of the Institute of Hydraulic Engineering, Hydro-Engineering Institute of Civil Engineering Faculty in Sarajevo (HEIS) along with schools were also presented.

The program Democratic Economic Governance of Water Supply: "Securing Access to Water through Institutional Development and Infrastructure" is a program supported by the Fund to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, funded by the Spanish government, with the aim of strengthening national ownership of achieving the Millennium Development Goals, under the auspices of the UN reform . The program jointly implemented by UNDP, UNICEF and UNESCO in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, Ministry of Civil Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Ministry of Health and social policies of the RS, the partner municipalities (Bihac, Bosanski Petrovac, Gracanica, Eastern Ilidža, East New Sarajevo, Kladanj, Neum, Petrovac / Drinić, Peter, Rudo, Chair, Center and Visegrad) and their water supply / utilities, and civil of society.

The GOAL WASH project (management, advocacy and leadership for water, sanitation and hygiene), which was implemented in the framework of the DEG program, aimed to raise awareness of the school populations about the importance of water.