Worldwide Water Education

December 27, 2011

2011 Project WET Foundation Highlights

As the staff of the Project WET Foundation looks ahead to 2012, we would like to take a moment to reflect on the year coming to a close. Two thousand eleven was a banner year for water education, marked by a hugely successful international conference, the launch of two new Internet water education resources and the publication of a fully revised Project WET Curriculum and Activity Guide 2.0, to name just a few of the year's high points.

Here's what kept us busy in 2011:

• The Sustaining the Blue Planet: Global Water Education Conference attracted more than 200 people from 40 countries to discuss how to discuss how water education can lead to sustainable solutions for global water issues .

• The Project WET Curriculum and Activity Guide 2.0 was completed and published in time for distribution and launch at the Sustaining the Blue Planet conference.

• With support from Nestlé Waters North America, Project WET developed, designed and launched DiscoverWater.org, a free, interactive web experience for children to learn about the importance of water.

• In preparation for the DiscoverWater.org launch in late September, Project WET staff hosted 10 webinars to introduce educators to the site.

• Project WET welcomed 12 new Project WET USA host institutions and 12 new international host institutions.

• On World Water Day, Project WET was involved in festivities in as many as 110 countries through our work with the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-HABITAT), World Water Monitoring Day and Nestlé Waters.

• The Project WET Foundation signed a partnership agreement with the U.S. National Park Service to launch Discover the Waters of America's National Parks, a project focused on educating people about the special water places that belong to all U.S. citizens.

• Through our longstanding relationship with conservationist Valerie Gates, Project WET facilitated the long-term loan of the educational sculpture "One World One Water" to the city of Bozeman and hosted a series of lectures around the topic of water.

• In cooperation with UN-HABITAT, the Project WET Foundation completed Spanish-language customizations of Project WET's water, sanitation and hygiene education materials for five countries in Latin America and conducted writing and training workshops in the pilot countries.

• Project WET launched a WASH pilot project in Mangalore, India; also in cooperation with UN-HABITAT.

• Project WET President and CEO Dennis Nelson was featured as one of 60 water sector thought leaders worldwide in the Future of Water virtual conference.

• Project WET's Water Education blog was named one of the Top 25 Water Conservation Blogs and was featured in DefeatDD's end-of-the-year newsletter as one of the five most popular blog entries of 2011.

• Project WET joined 19 other water, sanitation and hygiene organizations to endorse and launch the WASH Sustainability Charter.

• Two new members joined the Project WET Foundation Board of Directors: NASA Astronaut Richard Arnold and USAID Senior Education Advisor Joe Kitts.

• In both April and September, Project WET brought Educator Astronaut Ricky Arnold to Bozeman for public and school lectures about his time in space and his unique view of Earth as the Blue Planet.

• The Project WET Water Education Portal went live, offering a virtual meeting place for educators to discuss, collaborate and share resources around water education.

We look forward to another busy year in 2012. Happy holidays to all our readers!