Water education for sustainable development: a global synthesis

Water education is key to achieve the water related MDGs. While there is a range of materials and projects focusing on water-related education, these are not well connected to offer customised solutions to individual countries. Some of the limitations identified with the existing water education include use of outdated, biased or irrelevant information; poor medium of instruction; lack of continuity between different levels of water education; lack of integration with the wider curriculum and with local knowledge; lack of practical relevance to local and community needs; lack of resources; and poor linkages with locally available professional bodies. The programme on “Water Education” is an initiative of the International Hydrological Programme (IHP) of UNESCO, Water and Sustainable Education focused on an integrated understanding of biological and hydrological processes at a catchment’s scale in order to create a scientific basis for a new, cost-effective and systemic approach to the sustainable management of freshwater resources.