Water Security : Emerging challenges demand media action

A two-day training workshop for a dozen journalists from Central African sub-region opened in Sao Tome and Principe on June 17, 2015.

Central African countries are facing emerging water security challenges whereas the sub-region has abundant water resources. Global warming, deforestation, sea erosion, armed conflicts, mining activities, pollution and poor management of water resources, amongst others, have been identified as threats to water security in Central Africa.

Given the impact on livelihoods in rural and urban areas, raising the awareness of not only decision-makers but also the population through all available media, has become an imperative.

It is against this backdrop that the Central Africa Office of the non-governmental organization, Global Water Partnership (GWP-CAf), gathered over a dozen journalists from the sub-region in Sao Tome and Principe to train them on efficiently raising awareness through the social media.

Opening the two-day workshop on June 17, 2015, the President of Sao Tome and Principe’s National Partnership for Water, Ligia Barros, underscored the disparity in the geographical distribution of water resources in the sub-region, hence the need to sensitise stakeholders on the importance of an integrated management of water resources.

On his part, GWP-CAf’s Coordinator, Luc Claude Mamba, saw the social media with their growing number of users, as the arena for journalists to raise awareness on water security.

In the lectures that followed, the participants from mainstream media organs in Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon as well as Sao Tome and Principe, were edified by GWP’s key trainer, Hawa Diop from Senegal, on mastering the use of online social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, YouTubes and Google+, amongst others, to pass on awareness messages to target groups, especially youths.