Water for Life (WfL) is a full scale development youth and community based program; centered on freshwater literacy, water conservation and rainwater harvesting led by the Pacific Resources for Education Learning (PREL) in Hawaii. The goals of the project are to: (a) promote an understanding of water conservation and stewardship in areas lacking adequate quality water supplies and (b) build local capacity among rural communities to develop and employ site specific freshwater harvesting strategies proven to improve water quality. Rural communities within four Pacific Island entities in the U.S. affiliated Freely Associated States (FAS) will participate in WfL activities. PREL will work collaboratively with a host of organizations such as the Federated States of Micronesia National Department of Education, Marshall Islands Conservation Society, and the Micronesian Conservation Trust, to develop and implement all phases of the initiative. This work could potentially impact the quality of life for hundreds of people in the FAS through water conversation education and improved water quality in local areas.
Working closely with PREL staff and local water resource managers, a core team of 15-20 individuals, primarily teachers and community leaders, will participate in a 5 day short training course to develop and facilitate onsite and web-based water conservation and encatchment activities at the four target sites in the FAS. Three core team members per site will train local implementation teams of approximately 10 individuals per year (n=160) to redeliver the program and rainwater encatchment system strategies within their local communities. The implementation teams will redeliver the program to local youth and community groups (n=640). In addition, youth and community groups will be given opportunities to address specific needs through site specific service learning activities. These activities may vary and might include: new encatchment systems, repair/upgrade of existing catchment systems, community education of decontaminated collected or stored water, and groundwater contamination reduction efforts. Each individual will participate in WfL learning experiences for a minimum of 24 hours over the course of a year. The experiences of all project participants will be captured, analyzed, and reported in front-end, formative, and summative evaluations conducted by David Heil & Associates.
Project deliverables include: onsite and distance learning programs, professional development short courses for teachers and community leaders, and service learning opportunities for community and youth groups. Over 800 individuals will be directly impacted by the project. The results of this work may be applicable to other remote and rural communities outside of the Pacific distressed by poor water quality and ineffective freshwater harvesting systems.
