Editorial
As you all can remember, during the 56th JCI World Congress in Barcelona, last November, the World Wide Water Awareness team challenged you to start a water-awareness project in your own country. Many project proposals have reached us since. At the upcoming World Congress in Las Vegas we will judge the water-projects and we will nominate the 10 best projects. These projects will be brought to the 3rd UN World Water Forum in Japan, which will take place in March 2003. The project that will have the most impact, will be given the chance to present itself and will probably be interviewed for a British documentary on Water Awareness. Since there will be lots of press around at the World Water Forum, JCI has lots of opportunities to be heard and seen. We therefore urge you, again, to send us your water-project description, so that it can be judged in Las Vegas as well

Projects
Well now, what new water-projects can we already present to you? First of all, we can tell you about the Area Conferences A and D in Tunisia and Istanbul, that both have Water as their main theme. The programs of these conferences consist of lectures, workshops, trade fairs and visits to water-related organizations.

Also, Junior Chamber Senegal organized a water-related trade fair in December last year. The trade fair was a big success and led to various new contacts between Junior Chamber and local enterprises.

Junior Chamber Germany started a project with discussion groups on several issues, amongst which High Water (Hochwasser).

Finally, British Junior Chamber asked us to help with starting up a new water-project. Various suggestions were made and now BJC will shortly start with a project.

So, if you are still in doubt what kind of project you could start, donÕt hesitate to contact us, because we can help you with suggestions and contacts. You can reach us at info@water-awareness.nl. For a recent overview on projects, you can also visit our updated website at www.water-awareness.nl.

Third World Water Forum
In less than nine months, the third UN World Water Forum will take place in Kyoto, Osaka and Shiga, all in Japan. Many governments, companies, non-governmental organisations and citizens organisations will be present to discuss on the theme of saving worldsÕ freshwater-resources and using them in a more prudent way. Junior Chamber will also be present at this forum very vividly. At the forum there will be many workshops, presentations, demonstrations and discussions.

You can either go there yourself or visit the official website on www.worldwaterforum.org. Here you can also find some suggestions for a water project in your community. For example there is the watervoices project in which you can be the ÒvoiceÓ for people that will otherwise not be heard. If you have a (twinning) partnership with people who have no access to internet or local government, but who do have a problem with freshwater, you can be their voice, by posting their message on the World Water Forum bulletinboard. These messages will be presented to the political leaders during the Third World Water Forum.

12th Stockholm Water Symposium
Since 1998 the Stockholm Water Symposium looks at water as the key to socio-economic development and quality of life. Today there are 1.1 billion people who lack satisfactory access to safe drinking water and another 2.5 billion without adequate sanitation. As a direct result, some 5 million people die each year from water borne diseases Ð 10 times the number killed in wars around the globe. One-third of the worldÕs population live in countries currently facing a water shortage, a number that could increase to two-thirds (or about 6 billion people) by 2025. In the coming years, many investments in the water-sector have to be made. But also the need for awareness of water scarcity is eminent. Both citizens and industry will have to take their responsibility in using water in a prudent way. At the 12th Stockholm Water Symposium, to be held from August 12 to 15th, solutions will be discussed between governments, civil organisations and industry. More information on this conference, youÕll find on www.siwi.org.