India Resident Mission

ADB National Media Workshops on Water Issues

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) held two media workshops on water issues in Chennai and Delhi in February to increase the understanding of Indian journalists towards water issues affecting the country. The workshop objectives were to provide a more informed assessment of the key subjects, greater media coverage and more diverse collections of writings on water. More than 50 Indian journalists attended the workshops to hear from a wide range of speakers and engage in lively debate on a variety of water-related issues, including Water and Governance, Water and Urban Water Supply, Water and Gender, Water and Agriculture, and Water and Large Scale Infrastructure Projects.

The two Indian workshops, while generating news articles stemming directly from the presentations and discussion, were designed to improve the long-term capacity of journalists to write on water issues. Distinguished speakers included the heads of the Delhi Jal Board and Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board; Bunker Roy, Founder of the Barefoot College; Ramaswamy R Iyer, Former Secretary of Water Resources; Charles Andrews, Principal Water Supply & Sanitation Specialist at the Asian Development Bank; and Professor Tushaar Shah of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

Organized as part of ADB's Water Awareness Program, the workshops follow similar media workshops on water issues over the past 12 months in Phnom Penh, Hanoi and Chiang Mai, with over 150 reporters becoming part of a water journalists network. ADB's Water Awareness Program (WAP) aims to improve the quality of media coverage on water issues among journalists and other media actors and promote awareness among water stakeholders and the general public including water experts, policy makers and civil society.

For details on the national media workshops or if you are interested in being part of the ADB water journalist media network, please contact:
Paul Fisher at pfisher@timcullen.com

For related article see http://www.hindu.com/mag/2004/03/21/stories/2004032100170200.htm