WET calendar contest winners named

Seventeen students on island received recognition yesterday from the Project WET: Water Education for Teachers for coming up with the best drawing for its Millennium 2000 Children’s Water Education Calendar Contest.

Pamela Mathis, head of the project administered by the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation, handed out prizes to the kids, while acknowledging the assistance extended by hardware companies to its efforts to raise awareness on the need to conserve water.

CUC Board Chair Rosario M. Elameto, Education Commissioner Rita H. Inos and Edward Camacho, NMC Dean of Agriculture and Life Sciences Program, attended the awarding at the Joeten-Kiyu Public Library.

In her speech, Ms. Elameto underscored the significance of classroom education for schoolchildren to draw attention to the value of water resources, especially on the island where they are limited.

“We know that water is being wasted. We know that many of us have faucets that leak,” the former educator told teachers, students and their parents present in the awarding.

“If children learn about the source of water, and how precious it is, we can break the generation of apathy and create a century, perhaps a millennium of water-wise kids,” she added.

Ms. Elameto also praised Project WET for involving students into its 90 classroom activities and experiments that use all human senses, including common sense, generating interests and enthusiasm.

Started in 1996, the CUC program trains educators about island hydrology and their environment who in turn pass these to other teachers for classroom lessons.

According to Ms. Mathis, CUC pumps 11 million gallons of water a day which is enough for each person on the island to have about 200 gallons per day.

“Obviously, people are wasting water. When we acknowledge the wonderful work of our kids, we want also to help teach them and their parents about water conservation,” she said.

Project WET is founded in the belief that, when informed about our community and environment, kids and parents will use the knowledge to make the best management choices to protect their islands through the next millennium.

The Northern Marianas College Agriculture and Life Sciences Program is also part of the program by assisting in its information drive to ensure protection of the environment and food security. This is the second year that it has contributed to the Children’s calendar contest.