“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” - Mahatma Gandhi
We are at the tail end of the 2019 World Water Week. And the panel discussions around this year’s theme Water for society: Including all have been illuminating, to say the least.
World Water Week in almost 30 years of its existence has become the leading voice for water conservation-related issues around the world. The reasons that make WWW stand out, are their belief in following what you preach and their sensitivity towards overall environmental needs. World Water Week has taken multiple steps, both big and small, to make their six-day long event as environmentally friendly as possible.
What makes these measures praiseworthy, is their simplicity. They can even be replicated by us. Here's a list of sustainable measures we can learn from the World Water Week.
The prowess of going paperless
World Water Week in its mission to make the event paperless created a user-friendly app and website, eliminating the need for printed paper. They have even set up recycling booths so attendees can print their messages in creative and innovative ways.
According to a report by The Economic Times, India is cutting legally and otherwise more than 250 million m3 wood against an ideal cut of 106 million m3 from forests for hard-wood fibre requirements. Sadhguru during the panel discussion at the Harpic-News18 Mission Paani launch stressed on the need for a higher percentage of vegetation/trees in river basins for creating resilience in the ecosystem to floods, droughts and pollution.
Your Role - Avoid paper by using note-taking apps, sell old/unused paper products in your home to your local raddiwalla and recycle.
Refuse, Reuse and Recycle
World Water Week has successfully provided healthy and great-tasting food with the lowest environmental impact as possible. The event organisers are strictly recycling and reusing the food and beverage materials. Besides, all participants were provided with reusable water bottles with pit stops throughout the event for refilling purposes.
During the Harpic-News18 Mission Paani launch event panel discussion, the campaign ambassador, Mr Amitabh Bachchan, shared an intriguing insight. He explained that while digging a few feet deep into the ground in proximity to urban areas, one could find a layer of plastic, which prevented rainwater from seeping into the ground and instead it just flowed on the surface. India is witnessing a gradual depletion of underground water reserves, and dumping plastic could well be a significant contributor to the problem.
Your Role - Avoid plastic bags by carrying a cloth bag, practice waste segregation and say no to littering.
Carbon Offsetting
World Water Week is an international event, which attracts participants from 130 countries from across the world. And unfortunately, air travel is unavoidable. In their attempt and mission for carbon offsetting, the organisers of the World Water Week used biofuel driven shuttles to transport delegates from the airport to the venue.
World Water Week also provides a way for people to offset their event-related carbon emissions. You can visit Climate Care to offset your emissions online and to learn more about carbon offsetting.
Your Role - Use public transportation as much as possible, choose to carpool and plant as many trees as you can.
If World Water Week has inspired you to make a positive change, then you can take the above-mentioned measure at home. Also, you can become a part of Harpic-News18 Mission Paani - a people movement for water conservation in India.
It will only take a few seconds. Click here to take the Jal Pratigya and become a proud Jal Rakshak!
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