Bhubaneswar: The Youth4Water Plus Wednesday has launched Odisha Pond Week, as a part of World Water Day celebrations taking place March 22. WASH Specialist with Unicef, Odisha Shipra Saxena said that the campaign aims to reach out to youths by creating awareness and community-level action programmes around Water, Sanitation, Hygiene (WASH) and climate change across Odisha in collaboration with government and non-governmental organisations. “As climate change gets worse, groundwater will become more and more critical like we are noticing in Bangalore presently. There is a need to work together to sustainably manage this precious resource,” Saxena added. She further said that the campaign will observe World Water Day with the global theme ‘Water for Peace’.
To draw people’s attention for this cause, Youth4Water Plus is organising Odisha Pond Week from Wednesday. Campaign manager Dharmananda Sundaraya informed that during the weeklong campaign, the youths will engage in activities including cleaning up water bodies, teaching the community about water conservation, making posters and paintings, and creating awareness about the importance of water among others. Pantiss Group CEO Stalin Nayak said, “We aim to rejuvenate urban and rural water bodies naturally, making them healthy, sustainable resources for our communities, while involving youths in raising awareness about their importance and the impacts of climate change.”
ARINDAM GANGULY, OP