Thursday, 19th March

Joao is at the World Water Youth Forum in Istanbul, Turkey, from where he's keep us posted on what’s happening and how young people are participating at the forum.

Thursday, 19th March, Istanbul: Another busy day at the World Water Forum, especially for all the young people attending.

As the end of the Forum approaches, things are getting busier in the corridors and conference rooms. We are halfway through now, and it’s time to get our act together at the World Water Youth Forum.

All the delegates were up early to finalize discussions on each of the six main themes, to come up with the draft for the Youth Declaration.

Theme 1 – Global Changes and Risk Management
Theme 2 – Advancing Human Development and the MDGs
Theme 3 – Managing and Protecting Water Resources
Theme 4 – Governance and Management Coordination
Theme 5 – Finance
Theme 6 – Education, Knowledge and Capacity Building

Smaller teams worked together on different themes, so that the entire team could regroup for a discussion on the final draft. A huge amount of work has gone into drafting, shaping and re-shaping the declaration.

The hard work was only interrupted at lunch time, when all young delegates made a long chain of people creating a Youth Wave which crossed the bridge of the forum. This symbolic action called for an intergenerational partnership and for an increase in youth participation on the decisions concerning water and sanitation worldwide.
 

The action, aimed at representing youth efforts to “bridge the divides,” was originally set to start in the Feshane building and finish across the bridge at the Sütlüce Cultural and Congress Center. Although we were surprised by unpredictable bad weather conditions (that brought heavy rain, strong wind and even snow!) we decided to keep on with the action and not waste the opportunity to get our voices heard before launching the declaration.

 At 1pm we started walking from the reception tent in Feshane. We were surprised by the support of over 30 kids attending the Children World Water Forum that joined hands with us at the bridge to call the attention of the media and authorities about the crucial role young people need to play in decision-making.

The wave didn’t end at the end of the bridge. Our group proceeded with the march all the way across the venue of the event, engulfing the entire World Water Forum with a Tsunami of energetic (even though freezing!) young people demanding recognition for our role as equal partners in development efforts.

Once dried and warmed up, the young delegates got back into groups to finish the remaining details of the themed discussions. After the first complete draft was done, all the delegates attending the World Water Youth Forum gathered (after more than 12 hours of working almost nonstop) to discuss and agree upon the final text of the declaration, in what proved to be a heated discussion.

Unfortunately, problems with translations (or lack of appropriate ones) prevented some of the young people, especially those coming from rural areas of Turkey, to engage actively in the discussions and to follow what was being agreed upon. This created a strange feeling and lots of questions about the process.

The session went on for more than 2 hours, and each point was discussed over and over with not much consensus on some burning issues. Unfortunately, we failed to organize a participatory process that would enable all participants to engage in the discussions in a more interactive way.

This generated frustration which, combined with the exhaustion of long working hours, was not a positive recipe for success. The group decided to call off the discussions and take a break for the day. We will be restarting tomorrow morning, after everybody has had a chance to rest and read through the drafts thoroughly.

On the way back to the hotel, most delegates were still agitated, and from the discussions it is clear that lots of work needs to be done tomorrow in order to prepare a strategy that will enable the Forum participants to reach a consensus over the final Declaration.
To read through and provide feedbacks on the declaration, check the official World Water Youth Forum website.

Photos by Mehmet Cicek.