By IANS,
Johannesburg : Climate change is recognised as a global environmental problem and South Africa wants to create awareness among school children by incorporating environmental studies into the curricula, state-run news agency BuaNews said.
School projects to address the issue of climate change are being designed and will be made available to all schools across the country, Basic Education Deputy Minister Enver Surty said.
“We all know by now that we have a problem of climate change and everybody is talking about it. So we are using all platforms to redirect the attention of our young people to the importance of conserving the environment and making sure that we mitigate the impacts of the problem,” Surty said.
Johannesburg recently held the third annual Youth Water Summit organised by the Water Affairs Department.
Young people from all nine provinces of the country met and discussed the need to save water as well as the environment.
They all agreed that it was up to them to reverse the damage caused by global warming and committed themselves to save the world for future generations.
South African analysts predict that at the current population growth rate, it was unlikely that water resources will remain sustainable in the future.
The problem had been worsened by unreliable rainfall and demand from agriculture and industries.
“We started the youth summit as part of our vision 2020, with the knowledge that if we don’t do something now and educate the young about the importance of protecting water and the environment, we may be in trouble … We want to instil that knowledge in them that water is important in their lives,” said Water Affairs Deputy Minister Rejoice Mabudafhasi.