Introduction
“Water is a limited natural resource and a public good fundamental for life and health. The human right to water is indispensable for leading a life in human dignity. It is a prerequisite for the realization of other human rights.
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – United Nations - has been confronted continually with the widespread denial of the right to water in developing as well as developed countries. Over one billion persons lack access to a basic water supply, while several billion do not have access to adequate sanitation, which is the primary cause of water contamination and diseases linked to water.1
The continuing contamination, depletion and unequal distribution of water is exacerbating existing poverty. States parties have to adopt effective measures to realize, without discrimination, the right to water, as set out in this general comment.”

Source: The right to water : 20/01/2003. E/C.12/2002/11. http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.ns/

1 In 2000, the World Health Organization estimated that 1.1 billion persons did not have access to an improved water supply (80 per cent of them rural dwellers) able to provide at least 20 liters of safe water per person a day; 2.4 billion persons were estimated to be without sanitation. (See WHO, The Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment 2000, Geneva, 2000, p.1.) Further, 2.3 billion persons each year suffer from diseases linked to water: see United Nations, Commission on Sustainable Development, Comprehensive Assessment of the Freshwater Resources of the World, New York, 1997, p. 39.

Project
“I Don’t want to Get Thirsty” is a Heinrich Böll Foundation (HBF) pilot project, and implemented by the Royal marine Conservation Society (JREDS), which comes to empower young leaders from Jordan and other Arab countries on the “Right to Water” concept.

The project aimed at empowering 19 potential young leaders (18-24 years) from the region; Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Jordan in the Right to Water. Those young leaders were a great spark for a regional movement for the protection of the Right to Water, they acted as advocates for the water issues adopting the youth to youth approach "multipliers factors".
Phase one of the project started with a regional training course, through which the young leaders were provided with the necessary skills to train others and raise awareness on the rights to water and act as an advocacy power for the water issues. The General guidelines for the training covered the evaluation criteria of the UN concept of water as a Human Right.
The 3 days training course provided the leaders with basic information together with the required skills that enabled them to initiate awareness activities on the Right to Water topic.

Initiatives
The youth groups were granted money to do 3 small scale projects to spread the concept and make sure people will protect this right in our community.

Raising the awareness and establishing a network of connections at Rahmah Village/ Wadi Araba District was the 1st initiative the volunteers worked on. Youth volunteers visited the village in order to study the area, identify the local community needs and their water problems. This was followed with workshops to discuss the United Nations’ concepts of the right to water, introduce water preserving techniques, and the average water consumption for the daily human needs. Volunteers continued visiting the village even after completion of the project to urge the community to strive for their right to water.

The 2nd initiative was Awareness workshops & publications. Major workshops were held at a number of schools and universities on national basis. Youth leaders had also worked on producing some publications; posters, pens, banner and stickers, which were distributed at schools, universities and youth centers.

Producing a TV spot was the 3rd initiative. The spot demonstrated how a person should crawl for his Right to Water even if it was so hard to do. The spot was broadcasted several times at Jordan TV and still used by other workshops talking about the right to water.

As a result, more than 1 million people got the message and were approached for their right to water through the above mentioned 3 initiatives.

Other Regional Activities
As for the regionally implemented activities; two from our Egyptian leaders from the “Arab Organization for Youth & Environment” voluntarily prepared an awareness comprehensive program about Water and Environment. The program was distributed to large number of students and implemented in around 10 schools and libraries with a total number of 800 students involved.
The program included theoretical and practical activities; such as presentations and discussions about different environmental and water related issues. Games that aimed to raise the awareness of students about important environmental issues; such as the ideal consumption of water for daily use, the water sources and water management (water treatment, storage and consumption), in addition to drawing and art competitions.
Another regional activity was arranged by an Egyptian institution (Habi Center). A workshop for 30 people from different organizations was held during which they discussed the water situation in Egypt and studied the official reports concerned with water quality, quantity and accessibility.