Aqua Republica pilot workshops for water education take off in Nairobi and Buenos Aires

As part of this collaborative project, a new version of Aqua Republica was developed with a stronger focus on four important freshwater topics:

• Balancing water for food, energy and ecosystems
• Dealing with climate change
• Sharing water across boundaries
• Sustainable developments

The workshops served as an introduction to water education in order to get teachers and students familiar with sustainable water management. They also aim to equip the participants with experience in playing this new version of Aqua Republica scheduled to be launched by the end of 2015.

The students loved Aqua Republica as a game while the teachers valued it as a continuous and flexible online learning tool, not only suited for high school children but also for adults. Aqua Republica enables participants to understand the wider concepts of water and the effects of their own behaviour on the ecosystem.

These successful pilot workshops serve as a starting point to further roll out the game into more schools in Nairobi, Buenos Aires and globally through Cap-Net’s network of partners. As the game is also suitable as a communication tool to increase engagement in water-related professional courses, other activities involving universities are being established and will be announced in the coming months.

The future plans for Aqua Republica include further developments to improve learning goals and interactivity, as well as to increase content to take into account the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We are also continuously seeking new partners to develop and scale up the use of this tool globally. If this interests you, please contact czc@dhigroup.com.

What went on in class in Nairobi and Buenos Aires. ©DHI