World Water Day Commemoration for Rio Grande Valley

World Water Day will be commemorated on Wednesday March 22 through a number of activities scheduled for the Rio Grande Valley area of Portland, under the auspices of the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) in association with the Bowden Pen Farmers and Ginger House Environmental Groups.
World Water Day emerged from the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNICED), in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.
The day’s activities will be held under the theme ‘Water and Culture’ and will include an official ceremony at Ginger House to launch the day’s events; an exhibition at the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park, depicting the theme of the activities; a tree planting exercise at Fullers Park in Ginger House, and a mini tour of the communities of Ginger House, Bowden Pen and Mill Bank.
In a JIS News interview, Environmental Coordinator at NEPA, Lisa Kirkland said the day’s activities were being planned to increase public awareness of the problems and challenges affecting the sources of water supply and its distribution system, as well as the impact of the provision of potable water on the health of the population.
She informed that the activities were being organized out of the recognition that proper management of watershed areas was intrinsically linked to environmental practises. Mrs. Kirkland added that recent rainfall levels had highlighted the need to adopt disaster prevention preparedness and mitigation plans, particularly for watershed areas.
The Environmental Coordinator noted that the Rio Grande Valley had been chosen as the venue for the activities because the theme fits appropriately with the characteristics of the area such as rafting, its rich cultural tradition and the wide range of biodiversity which it possesses.
Mrs Kirkland said it was expected that the occasion would result in an enhancement of the efforts to properly organize their communities around issues of environmental preservation, and further improve their exemplary performance in the areas of environmental protection and watershed management.