On 10 December, several organizations organized an event in Florence under the title “Blue Communities – towards Peace and Water Justice” (see Blue News here). And it was a success! Here the post on Instagram:
We feel fulfilled by a day full of interventions and insights, happy that the hard work has paid off with enthusiasm.
We will gradually share parts of the very interesting talks that followed, from Michela Miletto to Marco Iob, from Mary Muthoni Wairia to Maude Barlow.
In the meantime, we would like to thank all the guests who took part, some of them online from Kenya, from Canada, from Sicily, and some of them present. A special thanks goes to the large (and hopefully growing) network of Blue Communities scattered all over the country, to all the organisations and associations that came to Florence from all over Italy to talk about water in a more urgent and concrete way than ever before, about past and future projects, both socio-hydrogeological and educational and awareness-raising. We would like to thank the many people who registered for the event, and especially the students, the 4 classes of the Da Vinci High School and the Gobetti Volta Institute, who were always curious and attentive, as well as being a fundamental part of one of the three working tables held in the afternoon, the culmination of a collaboration that has been going on for months, crowned by the exciting final awards ceremony.
“Water is the most fundamental human right and public good. It must be defended with hope and determination, in the knowledge that the rights of people and nature go hand in hand. Let’s make the world think blue, one city, one country, one community, one school, one person at a time.” (from Maude Barlow’s speech).