Events

Launch of the U.S. WASH-in-Schools Initiative, Wednesday, March 12, 2008

The National Geographic Society Grosvenor Auditorium

1600 M Street NW Washington, DC

8:30am                          Doors open
9:00 - 11:00am              Program and videos
11:00 - 11:30am             Coffee and tea

*We encourage parents to bring their children to this event.

Please join Water Advocates and a growing list of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), foundations, corporations, and schools to launch the U.S. Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Schools Initiative-an effort to help the 50% of schools in the developing world that lack access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene education.

The morning's events will feature videos of schoolchildren in the developing world as well as comments from Gil Grosvenor, Chairman, Board of Trustees, National Geographic Society; Ambassador Hattie Babbitt; Carol Bellamy, President and CEO, World Learning and UNICEF Executive Director from 1995-2005; Dr. Peter Gleick, President and Co-founder Pacific Institute; Gil Garcetti, Photographer of "Water is Key: A Better Future for Africa;" and Alexandra Cousteau, co-founder Earth Echo International.

While much is already being done for WASH in Schools, there is still an enormous unmet global problem-half the schools in the developing world lack adequate water and sanitation. This initiative will focus on expanding WASH to 1,000 schools in developing countries while creating the momentum to help as many additional schools as possible worldwide.

For more information on the WASH in Schools Initiative and how you can be involved, please contact Andra Tamburro 202-293-4047, atamburro@wateradvocates.org.

To attend the event, please RSVP to Katie Delisio at WaterAdvocatesRSVP@gmail.com

For a map to the event: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/explorer/map.html

Global Water Challenge Learning Forum

Sponsor:	Global Water Challenge, with support from the Jay and Kelly Sugarman Foundation and The Coca-Cola Company
Location:	Atlanta, Georgia
Date:	October 11, 2007
Details:	More than 75 participants came together from the finance, non-profit, corporate, academic, and government sectors. Discussions took place in a series of moderated panel discussions during which all those present participated actively by asking questions and making observations. The goal of the forum was to explore the barriers and opportunities for the use of innovative financing instruments for expanding investment in the water and sanitation sectors in developing economies. Participants engaged in a spirited discussion of why local private sector involvement in watsan (water and sanitation) was geographically limited, what governments could do to encourage and scale-up local investment by entrepreneurs, and how international capital markets could be engaged in the sector.

5th World Water Forum

Sponsor:	World Water Council (WWC)
Location:	Istanbul, Turkey
Date:	March 2009
Details:	Organized every three years in close collaboration with the authorities of the hosting country, the World Water Forum is the largest international event in the field of water. During the 25th meeting of the World Water Council's Board of Governors in March 2006, Turkey was selected to host the 5th Forum. The final decision is dependant on the negotiation and signature of a final agreement with the Turkish government within three months. If no agreement is reached within three months, negotiations will be initiated with the second-ranked candidate, Qatar.