Agenda

Global Inventory of water museums to be launched on 22 March - World Water Day 

World Water Day is an annual day of observance marked by the United Nations on March 22nd to celebrate water and raise awareness of the 2 billion people living without access to safe water. The topic this year is: ‘Groundwater - Making the invisible visible’.
Between 21-25 March, representatives from the Global Network of Water Museums (WAMU-NET) will be participating in the 9th World Water Forum in Dakar (Senegal) with the theme 'Water Security for Peace and Development'. 

On 22 March (World Water Day), WAMU-NET organizes at the 9th WWF a thematic session titled “World Inventory of Water Museums” (UNESCO Pavilion, from 4,30 to 5,30 pm). The session aims at launching the Global Inventory of water museums, eco-museums, extended museums, and interpretation centres in order to stimulate discussion and cooperation surrounding this implementation process. The project reflects the contents and objectives of UNESCO-IHP’s Resolution n.7-XXIV titled “UNESCO-IHP in support of developing the Global Network of Water Museums” (2021). 
The session will involve leading African institutions to start mapping water museums as well as interpretation centres, community-based museums, water-related legacies, and cultural landscapes with the potential to create new and future water museums. 
A classification system has been designed to aid National IHP Committees, universities, and research centres in the process of identifying institutions engaged in water sustainability education with the aim of preserving and promoting natural and cultural legacies related to water.

To guarantee an interdisciplinary approach, several experts from diverse disciplines will be involved to provide a uniform approach at national / country level. In this frame, training will be also provided by the UNESCO Chair on “Water, Heritage and Sustainable Development” (WHSD) established at the Venice University of Ca’ Foscari.
The toolkit and pilot inventories are available at thi link.
The planned session in Dakar will enable to start identifying and contacting African water museums and interpretation centres as well as groups of trainers, educators, and researchers who are active in water awareness efforts with a focus on water heritage. This process may also lead to the creation of an African subnetwork of water museums affiliated to WAMU-NET, like those already active in China and Latin America.

Speakers of the thematic session include:
Eddy Moors (IHE Delft); Eriberto Eulisse (Water Museum of Venice and University of Venice); Abdennabi El Mandour (Musée de la Civilisation de l’Eau au Maroc ‘Mohammed VI’); Sara Ahmed (Living Waters Museum); Samoura Alassane (Musée de l’Eau de Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso); Francesco Fioretti (Multimedia Museum of the Marmore Waterfalls). Moderator: Alexander Otte (Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme of UNESCO).