22 Mar 2021
New Shanghai rowing centre puts Clean Water project at its core
A new rowing centre in Shanghai, China has come with an attached Clean Water project and environmental education project. For the 2021 World Water Day, World Rowing looks at the project and the work being done for Clean Water.
The opening of the rowing centre is designed to focus on the promotion of school rowing in China and with that will be Clean Water education for students.
“The campaign engages students in water protection,” says former Asian Rowing Federation Secretary General Ken Lee. “During the first 15 sessions of the Learn to Row programme, the student rowers would be deeply involved in this campaign.
“The area of water (to row on) is not large, so we are hoping that through the Clean Water campaign all of Shanghai’s waterways will be row-able. For this reason, we are engaging the students in environmental protection. We aim to instil and appreciation and consciousness of environmental protection from an early age. This will hopefully be passed on the students’ parents, community and beyond – affecting government environmental policies.”
The project has launched four ‘leaders of the river’ and developed six topics to explore:
- Visit community residents and investigate the current level of knowledge of water environment protection in the community.
- Visit government departments and enterprises to explore the causes of water environmental pollution.
- Visit academic institutions to explore ways to conserve and protect the water environment.
- Write a paper on water environmental protection.
- Send this paper to local university research institutions, environmental protection departments and local councillors.
- Engage with the media to increase coverage to water environmental pollution.
The project is being led in conjunction with WWF Shanghai. “Fresh water is a valuable resource on earth,” says Water Practice Leader for WWF, Dr Wenwei Ren. “With water stress increasing in China and many people, especially in rural area still being forced to rely on contaminated sources for their drinking water. WWF has established partnership with World Rowing to promote the Clean Water Campaign. I am happy to see that the 2021 World Rowing Championships will be held in Shanghai. We want to take this school students’ campaign to improve public awareness about importance of water resource. Not only for sporting world, but also for people and nature”
The project will begin by focusing on Huacao Town in the Minhang District, Shanghai. This year Shanghai will host the 2021 World Rowing Championships in October.
World Rowing’s Clean Water initiative.
2021 World Rowing Championships webpage.