For years I have been pondering if there is need of another blog out there in cyberspace, a GWW blog. Probably my excuse for not having it earlier was to not dedicate time to write regularly and be able to keep the blog updated. However, the pressure of technology and other has made me finally give it a try and pursue this form of communication for GWW. After all, a blog is apparently one of the best online platforms to communicate with the world; and we are Global Water Watch. For those who know me, you realize that of course I had to go and do a little research about blogs before I would publish anything.
I want the GWW blog to have things that are interesting, appealing and educative, and yet written in an entertaining way. In other words not to be boring. Which is not easy when addressing certain topics. I always will admire Isaac Asimov for his prolific and enchanting way of writing, on any topic you can imagine. I always wished I could write a little bit like he did. He said “a poor idea well written is more likely to be accepted than a good idea poorly written”, and that is so true. But I think to Asimov writing was not just a habit; it was a lifestyle. And I also think that watershed stewardship should also be a lifestyle as well. Everybody’s lifestyle since everybody lives on a watershed.
Water monitoring is the focus of GWW philosophy of watershed stewardship. And we would like for water monitoring to become intrinsic on everybody. Some say that most people can create or break a habit in just 21 days. Other suggest that creating or changing a habit will take 30 days, and if it is re-affirmed for another 30 days it will definitely get imprinted on any person and they will have no problem to continue from there on. Water monitoring will take longer since GWW suggests to monitor only once or twice a month; therefore it may be more difficult to create that habit since it is not conducted everyday, and changing a habit is never simple. Nonetheless, experts say that in reality habits are easier to create than to break.
GWW hopes watershed stewardship can become the lifestyle to many, making sustainability an everyday practice. I am convinced that a world with zero waste and no toxic releases and a safe and stable climate, and equal access to ample, clean water and healthy food by everybody is far away or just a dream world. GWW appreciates the commitment of those scores of dreamers that have adopted the habit of monitoring and have learned to enjoy it.
I hope the habit of writing grows in me and of course we will accept ideas and suggestions about entries in this blog to make it alive and active. We all have a little bit of doctor, poet, and madman in us, my mother used to say; so please let me start reading your poems.
The purpose of the workshop was to provide training in the field of water quality monitoring as part of the model for community-based, science-based watershed stewardship promoted by GWW. The workshop was offered to watershed volunteers and students, with hands–on instruction focused on bacteriological and physical-chemical monitoring of water, and was conducted by Miriam G. Ramos Escobedo, Eduardo Aranda Delgado and Sergio S. RuizCórdova certified trainers with the Global Water Watch program.
