Insights from World Water Day in the Hague

On March 22nd, the official World Water Day event was hosted by UNESCO and the Dutch Government in The Hague. The theme this year was water cooperation, and as a student of water conflict at UNESCO-IHE I had a chance to go.

For a slightly different take you can also read my blog post on Water Canada. 

Both of the Princes present at the event gave compassionate speeches. Speaking for the West Asian region, HRH of Jordan stated, "we are looked at as statistics or figures if we are looked at, at all". His Royal Highness was referring to the perception of the Middle East region and the need for investing in human dignity as opposed to the arms industry. I had not known what to expect but like many others was impressed with his charisma and message.  

A breakout session on peace was especially striking as it was the forum in which real-life cooperation could be observed. The facilitators, professors and UNESCO professionals, started off with a hula-hoop game which illustrated the challenges to cooperation. Participants learned to recognize interdependence by focusing on the other(s) with whom they shared an objective. The game was also a great way to break the social-hierarchies in the room.

Later in that session, a Rabbi embraced an Imam after announcing their agreement to draw on examples of water sanitation from their respective texts and to disseminate it to their religious networks. The initiative is brilliant given that religious institutions have well structured networks for sharing information.

Final statement: Cooperation requires that we recognize the perspectives and value of those with whom we are engaged. It is fostered by highlighting our commonalities and the strengths in our differences.