WHAT IS WATER EDUCATION?
Water education has multiple connotations. It traditionally refers to formal and non-formal education programs that build awareness and knowledge of a wide variety of water topics. Yet it can also refer to activities that foster public engagement, behavior change and even systems change. Each of these activities is associated with distinct disciplines that rely on specific principles and practices to achieve outcomes.
The continuum below demonstrates both the strategies associated with each discipline, based on the intended outcome, and the “tiered” relationships that exist between disciplines. For example, an increase in awareness lays the foundation for subsequent increases in knowledge that are necessary for an individual to effect meaningful behavioral and even systems changes. Not all individuals will have the opportunity or choose to act on their water knowledge. Achieving the Impact envisioned in SWEAP requires that individuals move from basic awareness to knowledge to behavior change, including participation in discourse and informed decision making. This, in turn, requires both individual initiative and the enabling and/or empowering conditions that water education can help provide through social marketing and systems thinking strategies.
The continuum below demonstrates both the strategies associated with each discipline, based on the intended outcome, and the “tiered” relationships that exist between disciplines. For example, an increase in awareness lays the foundation for subsequent increases in knowledge that are necessary for an individual to effect meaningful behavioral and even systems changes. Not all individuals will have the opportunity or choose to act on their water knowledge. Achieving the Impact envisioned in SWEAP requires that individuals move from basic awareness to knowledge to behavior change, including participation in discourse and informed decision making. This, in turn, requires both individual initiative and the enabling and/or empowering conditions that water education can help provide through social marketing and systems thinking strategies.
