Kerala - Kozhikode   

Making children water literate

Staff Reporter

ALL EARS: Students of St. Joseph's Anglo Indian Girls' Higher Secondary School in Kozhikode attending a seminar on water literacy at the school on Wednesday. — Photo: S. Ramesh Kurup

KOZHIKODE: The need for conservation of water was stressed at a seminar on water literacy organised for students at St. Joseph's Anglo Indian Girls Higher Secondary School here on Wednesday.

A book containing awareness lessons on water conservation, `Jalakanangal,' in Malayalam brought out by the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM), was introduced to the students.

Introducing the book, E. Abdul Hameed, Technical Officer, CWRDM, said it was primarily aimed at high school students. Though the book was prepared by scientists and it dealt with a tough subject, care had been taken to make it as simple as possible, he said. Most of the names of its chapters are two or three words borrowed from famous Malayalam film songs like `Ninne Njan Enthu Vilikkum?,' `Ayiram Padasarangal Kilungi..,' `Alliyambal kadavilannu..,' `Kattarinenthinu Padasaram?,' etc.

Inaugurating the seminar, organised by the Calicut Management Association (CMA) and District Education Department, T.K. Abdurahman, deputy director, Higher Secondary Education Department, said that there was an urgent need to frame laws for conserving water. He asked the students to think of how much water they consume each day. Recalling his childhood days, he said that residing on the shore of a river he and his family would not sleep during night for nearly one month of monsoon for fear of their house being flooded. But now even the boys and girls of 15 years of age in his native place would not have experienced a flood in their life.

A.V. Venugopal, secretary, CMA, said that in the past, people who had houses with large compounds used to conserve water in their holdings. "We should revive such practices. The effort is to make students aware of the need to preserve water," he said.

Babu Mathew, scientist, CWRDM, said the main problem was the casual attitude of people towards water. "We do not understand the real worth of water. Each and every citizen should take sincere efforts to change the situation. It is very difficult to change the habits of a grown up person, but it is easy for the children," he said.

V.K. Prem Nathan, registrar, CWRDM; Sr. Jovita A.C., Principal of the school; N. Sasidharan, District Education Officer, and C.M. Pradeepkumar of the CMA were present.

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