World Water Day Observed by SEVAI.‘Most of the world's population lives in cities’: Water for cities- urban challenge, Waterday-2011 Street plays Performed in Trichirappalli by a local NGO -SEVAI.

Ms.P.Chitra, Project Director, SEVAI in her valedictory address of a weeklong street plays performed by SEVAI in Trichy urban slums here said ‘An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating 22 March 1993 as the first World Water Day. Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater. Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater. This is the first time in human history that most of the world's population lives in cities: 3.3 billion people ...and the urban landscape continues to grow.38% of the growth is represented by expanding slums, while the city populations are increasing faster than city infrastructure can adapt. The objective of World Water Day 2011 is to focus international attention on the impact of rapid urban population growth, industrialization and uncertainties caused by climate change, conflicts and natural disasters on urban water systems. This year theme, Water for cities: responding to the urban challenge, aims to spotlight and encourage governments, organizations, communities, and individuals to actively engage in addressing the challenges of urban water management. The other themes covered so far have also been incorporated in street plays performed by SEVAI team (www.sevai.in). The highlights of the street play themes are water quality, reflecting its importance alongside quantity of the resource in water management, to raise awareness about sustaining healthy ecosystems and human well-being through addressing the increasing water quality challenges in water management and to raise the profile of water quality by encouraging governments, organizations, communities, and individuals around the world to actively engage in proactively addressing water quality e.g. in pollution prevention, clean up and restoration. The other theme incorporated in street play is “Shared Water - Shared Opportunities".

Special focus is placed on transboundary waters. Nurturing the opportunities for cooperation in transboundary water management can help build mutual respect, understanding and trust among countries and promote peace, security and sustainable economic growth. In 2008, World Water Day coincided with the International Year of Sanitation, and challenged us to spur action on a crisis affecting more than one out of three people on the planet. The growing problem of Water Scarcity was the also the topic for World Water Day street play. The theme highlighted the increasing significance of water scarcity worldwide and the need for increased integration and cooperation to ensure sustainable, efficient and equitable management of scarce water resources, both at international and local levels. The theme 'Water and Culture' street play drew the attention to the fact that there are as many ways of viewing, using, and celebrating water as there are cultural traditions across the world. Sacred, water is at the heart of many religions and is used in different rites and ceremonies. Fascinating and ephemeral, water has been represented in art for centuries - in music, painting, writing, cinema - and it is an essential factor in many scientific endeavours as well..The message of the street was also: Weather, climate and water resources can have a devastating impact on socio-economic development and on the well-being of humankind. According to the World Meteorological Organization weather and climate-related extreme events, such as tornadoes, thunderstorms, storms, cyclones, floods and drought, account for nearly 75 per cent of all disasters. They lead to an enormous toll of human suffering, loss of life and economic damage. Monitoring these events, predicting their movements and issuing timely warnings are essential to mitigate the disastrous impact of such events on population and economy,’ Chitra concluded. Earlier SEVAI/APAC TI project head of SEVAI Ms.Suda welcomed the gathering and Mrs.Amala, the project coordinator of Street theatre team proposed vote of thanks.EtNS.