“Water is one of the most valuable and vulnerable natural resources anywhere on earth, but this is especially true for the Mediterranean. Water shortage and the increased demand associated to uncontrolled development, intensive agriculture, mass tourism, overpopulation and overconsumption result in a complexity of interrelated problems affecting social, economic and natural aspects of everyday life.”

In order to properly address these problems an integrated policy approach is needed a basic component of which is Education, relevant well targeted programmes, and educational materials. “Water in the Mediterranean” is the result of a fruitful collaboration of NGOs from 7 Mediterranean countries (Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Israel, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey), and a group of postgraduate students of the University of Athens. The material was originally produced in English language in 2001, applying the bottom up approach.

It is extremely important that anyone about to use this material understands that appropriate education is a very significant tool in promoting the idea of better use, of conservation, respect and of integrated management of water. However, education alone cannot solve the problem. In depth understanding of all other means and aspects could create the needed synergy for concerted action and creative solutions. This is why particular effort has been invested in the present educational material to familiarize students with concepts, methods and ways of action.

The publication
Since then, and as the content was considered highly relevant and appropriate for teachers and students from the Mediterranean countries the material has been translated in various languages and is widely disseminated in the Mediterranean countries. The languages in which the Water kit is available are: ENGLISH, FRENCH, GREEK, ITALIAN, TURKISH, ARABIC and CROATIAN. The Spanish and Portuguese versions are in the pipeline and will be finalised depending on available funds.

Please find HERE a description and for each language use the following:
For ENGLISH here.
For ITALIAN here.
For FRENCH here.
For GREEK here.
For TURKISH here.
For ARABIC here.
For CROATIAN here.

Lessons learnt and recommendations for the publications:
- The Mediterranean puzzle: the more the merrier! The participatory process followed during the preparation of the water-kit (7 NGOs members from 6 Mediterranean countries) resulted in an educational material that is relevant to the Mediterranean reality, therefore meaningful to most ESD educators of the region.
- Hardcopies or E-copies? Need to find a balance... Although ALL publications are available online for free download, many educators, especially from the south Mediterranean prefer to work with the hardcopies (probably due to lack of PCs, internet access, or basic ICT knowledge). Unfortunately, hardcopies entail higher costs for production and dissemination.
- Print, yes, but where? For large-number publications in national languages it is less expensive to publish within the country. However sometimes this results in lowering the printing standards set by the MEdIES secretariat.

All versions are available in electronic form in the Publications section (ENERGY PERIOXH) of MEdIES and some of them can be even provided in hardcopy from the MEdIES Secretariat.

Launchings & Trainings: During the past decade, several official launchings of the material have been organised in collaboration with MIO-ECSDE member NGOs that act as focal points in the Mediterranean countries. These launchings were combined with experiential trainings by the MEdIES secretariat on how-to-use the educational material. We list them here Athens, Greece (2003); Rome, Italy (2004); Istanbul, Turkey (2004); Cairo, Egypt (2004); Morocco (2007); Beirut, Lebanon (2005 and 2009)

Lessons learnt and recommendations for the trainings:
- Good, but not enough…
All national seminars are organised with the close collaboration of MEdIES Secretariat and the national partners. This resulted in high engagement from both.
In most cases the trainings took place only once per country, to a restricted number of participants (low replicability level).
In some cases, the national partner repeated the training within the country and followed closely the dissemination process and application and evaluation of the water-kit (e.g. Italy).
TrainingsΆ follow up: In many cases there is not enough evaluation /feedback from the educators that implemented the water-kit (neither directly to the secretariat, nor through the national TASK GROUP member).
- THE CHALLENGE: Still working on a more structured strategy for the follow up of the implementation of the water material & other MEdIES material

The Turkish Example:
The Turkish translation of the Water kit has been completed already in 2002. The electronic version of the publication was completed in 2004 and for the period 2004-2007 it was available only electronically (CDs, website). However, by the end of 2007, due to the efforts of the Turkish NGO GSEL (Green Steps for Environmental Literacy) the amended second version of the package “Akdeniz'de su” has been produced in 20.000 hardcopies, and since 2008 it has been widely disseminated to schools in Turkey.