Children 'effective agents' in sanitation campaign

Irawaty Wardany ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Denpasar   |  Wed, 06/11/2008 10:37 AM  |  Bali

Children are seen to be effective agents for developing environmental awareness among adults, a senior official said Sunday.

"Children can stimulate significant change toward environmental awareness if we educate them as early as possible. They can pass on the information they receive to their parents and siblings," said Public Works Ministry director Susmono on the sidelines of a drawing and speech competition for elementary students.

WATER TIME: An elementary school student takes part in a drawing competition Sunday in Sanur, with the theme, “Water as a source of life”. The competition was aimed at increasing children’s awareness of water and sanitation issues. (JP/Irawaty Wardany)

The competition, held in Sanur, was part of the national campaign to mark the International Year of Sanitation.

Wisata Werdhapura House, where the competition was held, was packed with hundreds of children accompanied by their parents and relatives.

Susmono said that the event was part of their long-term program for changing people's mind-set about the importance of water and sanitation.

"We expect that by educating these children through fun activities their mindset can be changed and in 10 or 11 years time they will be the active campaigners for the preservation of our water sources and for healthy lifestyles," he said.

He said poor sanitation was a serious problem in Indonesia. Poor sanitation is the primary cause of diarrhea, which is responsible for the deaths of more than 30,000 children below five years on an annual basis.

One of the drawing competition's contestants, Putu Dea Indah Kartini, a first grader, said that water was a basic human need.

"We need water to drink, to take a bath and to water the plants as well as to purify ourselves in religious ritual," she said.

Most of the contestants interpreted the drawing competition's theme "Taking Care of Water as the Source of Living" as a calm ocean and clear rivers, where the children could play freely.

However, Putu Ayu Hani, a fifth grader, had a different interpretation.

She interpreted the theme by drawing a pair of hands holding the earth. The earth itself was depicted as nothing but a drop of water.

In a separate building, 50 elementary students participated in the speech competition. The competition went smoothly, with all students who had prepared their speech the day before waiting for their turn.

Putri Sakuntala, a fifth grader from Saraswati V elementary school in Denpasar, astounded the judges with her speech which was filled with actual data.

In her speech Sakuntala quoted data released by the Unesco's World Water Assessment Program, stating that by 2020 two third of people in the world would face water crisis.

"Therefore we all should save the water and try to use environmentally friendly substances in every daily activity," she said.

She told The Jakarta Post that she downloaded the data from Internet.

"I just want to show people that water is really important to our life and that if we do not preserve water resources from now we will have water crisis in the future," she said.

She added that her parents had taught her to preserve nature since she was a little girl.

"My father is a physician and he always taught me how to love nature," she said, adding that her father also taught her to separate organic from inorganic garbage.

"My family also has the habit of giving tree seeds as birthday presents, which we plant in our yard at home," she said.

Her mother, Lasmini said that she taught her children as early as possible because she realized that the habit to preserve nature should be implanted early on.

Public Works Ministry head of data and information Dwityo Akoro Soeranto said that children would be the most vulnerable group to the impacts of bad sanitation.

"That is why we want to create a new generation who have a high awareness about this issue," he said.

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