International Danube Day, 2009 – WECF awards prize for best Water Safety Plan
An activity within the Safe Sanitation Health and Dignity project in Romania co-financed by the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Bucharest and Fondation Ensemble France
13.08.2009 |Olivia Radu, WECF project officer Romania
cruise on the Danube for Romanian pupils and teachers
The International Danube Day, which takes place every year on June 29,has been celebrated ever since 2004 by all 9 countries which border this European river. It is a popular event and the opportunity for many official gatherings and festive events. The Danube is the second largest river in Europe and this celebration day was created with an environmental objective: it aims to motivate the inhabitants and all stakeholders for the protection of the Danube River Basin ecosystems.
WECF decided to award a prize for the best Water Safety Plan, in order to raise awareness on this program and to give the pupils and teachers recognition for their great involvement. The winner was selected following criteria set by WECF: taking into account the management of activities, involvement of citizens, quality and number of water tests conducted, quality and number of watersource maps created. The winning school is located in Tiganesti village, Teleorman county.
The Water Safety Plan is a practical instrument developed by WECF on the basis of guidelines published the World Health Organisation. WSP are designed identify risks which could affect water safety and human health in every stage of the water supply, and to define measures to minimise and manage these risks.
WECF and its partners use the WSP to develop practical activities for primary and secondary schools. Margriet Samwel - WECF Coordinator on Water & Sanitation is the initiator of this program.
In Romania 9 schools in 4 counties conducted WSPs during the school year 2008-2009 :
- Mehedinti county: 2 schools from villages of Vrata and Garla Mare,
- Teleorman county: 5 schools from the villages of Cervenia, Contesti, Storobaneasa, Tiganesti, Izvoarele,
- Giurgiu county: for 1 school in Pietrele village,
- Ialomita county: the school from Cosereni.
The schools prepared in September and October 2008, a plan for the WSP implementation. At the end of the school year a report was produced following the structure and guidelines of the WECF WSP manual.
On the 29th of June, in Teleorman, as in many other regions in Romania, special events are taking place. Turnu Magurele a town on the left bench of the Danube, in the south of Teleorman, is hosting an annual conference on the development of the different water projects in this county. This year the conference focussed specifically the Water Safety Plan concepts and activities.
Around 1000 pupils and 20 teachers from the 9 schools involved came to Turnu Magurele for the Award Ceremony and and to exchange experience and ideas about the activities they had conducted. It was also an excellent opportunity to present their initiatives for protecting ground water to other stakeholders of the conference.
The responsible teacher from the Award Winner, Tiganesti village school, presented their results in front of a large audience of mayors and local water authorities.
The prizes were awarded by our national coordinator for Romania – Olivia Radu, by the deputy director of the County Council Teleorman and Dutch partner from the Province of Overijssel – who participates with WECF in the organization of the Danube Day event.
Thanks to this Dutch partner, the representatives of the Water Boards from the Netherlands were also present at the ceremony and learned about the educational activities carried out by WECF in Romania. For the festivities, surprises and prizes were prepared for everybody. All the children received backpacks in the blue colour of the Danube. Each school received also a photo camera, to respond to the wish they had expressed during the project implementation (a useful tool for conducting the activities). The awarded school received additionally a flipchart for their future activities. Finally, a boat took all the pupils and their teachers for a 3 hours cruise on the Danube.
Follow-up: In the following months a report will be completed with examples of WSP describing the activities conducted by the schools during implementation. In the villages the follow-up will consist in presenting the WSP results and adopted measures to the inhabitants, the mayors and to the media. WECF will provide in October 2009 a detailed report of the watertests and measures adopted in each village.
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