Online Learning Program: ‘Local Water Solutions for Global Challenges’
Article published on OOSKAnews.com
In this article, May East describes a free online education program that offers participants a comprehensive overview of global water challenges and the means to identify local solutions.
May East is a sustainability educator, spatial planner and social innovator. Designated one of the 100 Global SustainAbility Leaders three years in a row she currently works in 54 countries with community-based organisations and intergovernmental agencies in the creation of policy guidance for accelerating the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and for delivery of projects seeking to strengthen climate resilience, food security and local water solutions. A UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Fellow, she has an MSc in Spatial Planning with specialization on rehabilitation of abandoned villages. As CEO of Gaia Education, her passion is to co-develop Project-Based Learning trajectories supporting indigenous and migrant communities and their traditions to survive in rapidly changing environments while enhancing their opportunities to become the designers of their desired future. She has recently received the Women of the Decade in Sustainability and Leadership award by the Women Economic Forum.
Local Solutions To Global Water Challenges
Access to clean water and sanitation is a basic human right that affects our health and our safety. We need safe water to drink every day, and adequate sanitation facilities to ensure that everyone has the ability to attend school or work. And, we need to manage the flow of wastewater regeneratively to protect our fragile ecosystems.
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 includes eight targets that are universally applicable and aspirational. They cover the entire water cycle including: provision of drinking water (target 6.1), sanitation and hygiene services (6.2), treatment and reuse of wastewater and ambient water quality (6.3), water use efficiency and scarcity (6.4), IWRW including through transboundary cooperation (6.5), protecting and restoring water-related ecosystem (6.6), international cooperation and capacity building (6.a), and participation in water and sanitation management (6.b).
Under Target 6.a: Expand international cooperation and capacity building, the partners Gaia Education Scottish Government Hydro Nation Division, Strathclyde University, the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), and Scotland’s Centre for Expertise on Waters (CREW) are conducting the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) “Local Water Solutions for Global Problems”.
This free online programme gives participants a comprehensive overview of global water challenges and the means to identify local solutions. Some of the challenges the course addresses include human development needs, water security, water quality, water availability, root causes of water scarcity, water distribution and equity, and the interactions between climate change and water, bringing innovative local solutions that span policy, technology, integrated design and behaviour change.
Register your interest for next year’s UNITAR 5-Week free e-learning programme supporting #SDG 6 implementation here
