Water

Promotion and Public Awareness
Water Awareness Program

ADB implemented the Water Awareness Program (WAP) from 2002-2005 to create an environment supportive of effective water policies in the Asia-Pacific region. Background WAP Objectives Thrusts Contacts

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ADB’s Water Awareness Program (WAP) was launched in May 2002 as one of the six program categories under the Cooperation Fund for the Water Sector (CFWS).

For four years, the WAP program expanded water sector knowledge within and outside ADB through various awareness tools. Critical water issues across Asia and the Pacific received media mileage through WAP knowledge products, which include publications, model terms of reference for water projects, short articles on water issues, and more. Many of them offer new knowledge; others offer an update on existing knowledge. ADB staff and country stakeholders highly acknowledge the quality of these products and the support they provide in the stakeholders’ operational work.

WAP also held a series of national and regional media workshops on water issues for journalists. Participants to these workshops organized an informal media network and collaborated to establish Asia Water Wire, an online resource of water stories.

Today, ADB continues to promote public awareness on water issues through new and evolving awareness tools and media activities.

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The WAP’s objectives were to:

• Increase public awareness and understanding of water issues
• Disseminate ADB's water policy to water stakeholders, experts and decision makers to influence policy-making
• Encourage dialogue among water stakeholders towards a common agenda for water reform
• Educate children and youth about the water crisis and their role in finding solutions
• Provide information and support to journalists from ADB's developing member countries (DMCs) to improve the quantity and quality of press coverage about water issues
• Support pilot small-scale community-based education projects on water issues which help to improve the lives of the poor

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The WAP focuses on three strategic challenges:

• From regional to country - focusing more on DMC clients and stakeholders, working more closely with operational staff and supporting awareness building in DMCs
• From publicity to knowledge - focusing on dissemination of knowledge products, and prioritizing activities based on ADB's mandate and comparative advantage
• From parallel to concerted - increasing synergy among WAP tools and media, and coordinating with ADB's knowledge management applications currently under development.

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