Water - Education
Water management presents itself nowadays as a broad field of different demands placed in the resource itself and different attempts to direct the way of dealing with this resource as much as possible to the benefit of the society.
Present situation of water education
The image of water management in the public, which is first and foremost perceived via control and regulatory components (legal provisions and their implementation), is nowadays marked by a widely branching network of competencies and responsibilities.
However, nowadays the way of dealing with a topic works under framework conditions which are completely different from those only a few decades ago, in the ideal case in a public discourse. Nowadays the influence of public opinion has become an important component and the driving force of political activities.
GSA-IP Why water education? feik@netway.at
Water ranks among the most important elements for human existence. Water is irreplacable. Water has to be protected against negative influences, in terms of quantity, but, above all, also in terms of quality, in order to offer the greatest possible diversity of utilizations (drinking water).
The point is to develop, as early as possible (kindergarten, school), a water awareness as a basis of a careful way of dealing with the vital element for survival water.
The topic of “water” is suitable as a part of the curriculum of various subjects of instruction, or as a matter of discussion, and also for inter-disciplinary project instruction; however, it is not sufficiently included at the moment.
GSA-IP Ways and means of water education feik@netway.at
The careful way of dealing with the survival element water must be formulated as a broad public concern. This means that as many target groups as possible are to be mobilized and that in a successful communication policy every target group has to be looked after individually. Instruments for broad communication are mass media, the publication of brochures, offering information and discussion opportunities (for example via the internet, e-mail, etc.), action days etc.
However, what is particularly important for water management is to transform this concrete information and the knowledge derived therefrom into “water-aware action”.
A particularly important communication group in this respect are young people in the phase of training, because they are very receptive and open for new things, especially for environmental issues. The water education projects of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management pay therefore special attention to this target group.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management initiates these projects and provides technical and financial support to them. For all projects teachers are partners in the implementation stage. For this reason the aspect “train the teachers” (further training and service) is of great importance.
GSA-IP Prospects feik@netway.at
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management has already paid attention to and further developed the sector of water management for several years.
The goal is to provide for all those interested, in particular for the school and training sector, water information, so that it can be imparted speedily and efficiently as a topic within the framework of instruction. For this purpose all didactic tools from concrete teaching material and information brochures to teacher manuals and materials for inter-disciplinary, group-dynamic teaching are offered.
As a completely new field it is now essential in water education to include the aspect of "experience" into the concepts. The experience pedagogics water (touring exhibitions with possibilities of experimentation etc.) should offer an opportunity to make water experiencable in a sensual way complementary to the purely cognitive sector.
All in all the partner “kindergarten/school“ is very important for the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment, and Water Management in the field of water management. In particular the atmosphere of being open for new things and of creativity, which is frequently found at schools, can be used for the goals of water management. According to the principle of communicating vessels a positive feedback on the ways and means of modern water management is to be expected as well!
23.03.2006, Lebensministerium VII