Ensuring the knowledge base: A collective responsibility
The United Nations world water development report · 2003
KNOWLEDGE DOES NOT EXIST IN ISOLATION, and understanding even less so. This chapter investigates some of the subtle but powerful ways in which education, training, public information, cultural traditions, the media and modern telecommunications interact with each other to influence the way we behave and respond to change in the world around us. Our attitudes begin forming at a very early age, and those in a position to affect the way we perceive and manage our water resources must pay as much attention to non-formal communication as to formal education. Public awareness, community involvement and the inclusion of all actors – but especially women – in decision-making are keys to success. In this context, such high-tech tools as computers, geographic information systems (GIS) and electronic databases are almost irrelevant as long as millions of people are deprived of basic education, health and food.