Straits Times 24 Mar 08;
As the world celebrates Water Day, Dunstan Lee wonders why it's so tough to get youth interested in water issues
SINGAPORE has enough water for its population now, so it is a challenge convincing young people their supply might be threatened.
But reality bites. Global warming, water pollution and the booming world population are now collectively putting strains on our water sources. We are the generation which will inherit this earth and its problems.
Yet I, for one, can be upfront: I've never lived through a drought or water rationing.
The only times I had to be careful with my water was during my army field camps when supplies had to last several days.
To truly get this generation - the 'clickerati' and the technology-savvy - involved, we can't just tell the youth, we have to sell the idea, too.
This month, we celebrated World Water Day. But will it be enough to just head down to a reservoir and think about how we can ensure good clean water?
Issues such as water pollution and shortages are pressing, but it's another thing to engage the youth about them.
Having grown up without experiencing water problems, we have a tough time imagining what it would be to go without. After all, we have always had access to clean, treated water, straight from the tap.
Besides, Singapore currently has enough water for its population, so convincing young people not to take water sources for granted is a challenge.
Perhaps a more effective approach would be to drive home the point with an experience - a taste of drought.
Teach water conservation through rationing exercises across all schools in collaboration with, say, Total Defence Day or National Day. Such an experience is likely to help the youth appreciate its importance.
Or how about playing citizen journalists on online forums, with the youth contributing pictures of polluted canals and drains to help nab guilty polluters?
Already, on World Water Day on Saturday, four Stomp contributors were recognised as Friends of Water by the national water agency PUB for giving tip-offs on the pollution of water sources.
In the last couple of years, more water activities have been introduced at reservoirs.
But while having fun, can we do more to help young people remember that they can do so only in clean water?
Just imagine the opposite - paddling in a foul-smelling river choked with litter, animal carcasses and other unsavoury stuff.
The writer, 24, is a final-year undergraduate at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication & Information, Nanyang Technological University
