Students participated in water, sanitation and hygiene education through specially adapted football games, including a football-based activity to teach about safe handwashing, what germs are and how they spread, and the importance of water conservation.
These participants, aged 7-12, were selected from the Houston Parks and Recreation Department’s local soccer and summer enrichment program and the session was hosted in Near Northside, a historically underserved neighbourhood.
Gareth Hughes, International Programmes Manager at City’s global foundation said: “Football is an amazing tool to inspire and educate young people.
“We enjoyed teaming up with Xylem and Houston Public Works to deliver this football and water education clinic, building on our work with Xylem around the world using football to tackle local water challenges.”
Lacie Ulrich from Houston Water said: “Houston has a complex relationship with water.
“On average, Houston receives fifty inches of rain per year, and sometimes many of these rainfall events occur all at once, causing the city to flood.
“On the other side, the city can experience extreme droughts such as the one in 2011 and the current drought.
“As the climate continues to change, these events will likely become more common and more extreme, adding stress to our water supply and infrastructure.
Educating Houston’s youth about water issues is becoming more and more important to our future.”
Over the last four years, the partnership between Xylem and City’s global charity initiative, Cityzens Giving, has empowered a global network of over 500 young community football leaders to deliver life-saving water awareness, education, and access to more than 20,000 children in eight countries.
These projects combine football-based education on water with infrastructure upgrades using Xylem technology and expertise.
For more information on the partnership, please visit: https://www.xylem.com/en-uk/about-xylem/partnerships/man-city/
To find out more about water challenges and solutions in Houston, visit: www.HoustonRunsOnWater.org
