Climate change, water wastage explained to Dubai youth

Dubai - Learning about sustainability through stories, short movies and interactive workshops at Dewa.

Retreating glaciers, disappearing forests, a global water shortage, an increasingly warmer planet - concepts such as these were broken into small bits and explained to about 160 school students who visited the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) green building in Al Quoz. The students got to see the solar panels on the roof of the building of Dewa, and even took a tour of the organic vegetables patch on the roof.
This environment education initiative was part of the Green Educational Event (GEE) organised by the French Business Council of Dubai and Northern Emirates and Alliance Française Dubai, along with Dewa. French Consul Majdi Abed opened the Green Educational Project on Wednesday and addressed the students.
On the first day, Wednesday, Dewa hosted seven to eight-year-old students of Grade 3 Georges Pompidou, and on Thursday older students, aged 12-13, from The Indian High School; both sets of students got to learn about climate change by listening to various talks and interacting with experts.
When the children were taken to the rooftop of the Dewa building, they got to see the 4,400 solar panels that generate 600kw of solar power, (according to Ramnik Sahney, Deputy Manager, Electro mechanics, Dewa).
The aim was to raise awareness on sustainable industry. There was also a photo exhibition concurrent with the COP 21, which is expected to take place in Paris from November 30 to December 11.
Stories were told through short movies and interactive presentations. Students were also told about the importance of reducing consumption and how this step comes much before recycling. The kids, seated in swivel chairs, were told, the more you reduce the less you consume, and the less there is to recycle. And they seemed to get the point. They also got to know about water consumption/wastage. Herve Faujour, Technical and Performance Director of Veolia spoke on how on an average just one person in the UAE uses 500 litres of water per day (as against Europe's 200 litres and the US's 600 litres per day per person).
Faujour made the kids aware of how this was an atrociously high rate especially due to water-wasting washing machines, swimming pools, showers that go on too long, and a basic unawareness that taps need to be shut and water wastage reduced. He credited Dewa with drastically reducing the amount of water wasted. In the 1980s, Dubai, he said, would waste almost 40 per cent of water due to leakages in pipes, and today, that's down to less than 10 per cent."
Apart from the Smart Water talk with Veolia, there was a talk about recycling with Suez, a discussion about Smart Cities with Schneider, and a run through of Solar Energy and renewable energy with Akuo Energy. -nivriti@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai