• In the world today 1. 1 billion people do not
have access to safe drinking water.
education, interest and motivation to take this
one step further – to become “Ambassadors”
for clean water around the globe. Rowers are a
community of credible and articulate people able
to communicate the importance of sustainable
usage and management of water bodies. We want
to encourage initiatives that will raise and maintain
interest in this subject. We recognise that education
is key to changing behaviour and attitudes and we
want to motivate rowers everywhere to become
spokespeople for this cause.”
Already the alliance has made progress. Links
have been formed between national rowing
federations and local WWF offices in the UK,
Hungary and the Netherlands.
© Igor Meijer / FISA
• 41 per cent of the world’s human population
lives in areas of severe water stress.
• In the developing world 80 per cent of diseases
are caused by contaminated water.
• About 70 per cent of available freshwater is
used for agriculture.
• In developing countries up to 70 per cent of
industrial wastewater is disposed without
treatment.
Currently, George Kazantzopoulos of FISA’s
environmental working group is leading the
scientific work with WWF, on FISA’s behalf. His
first project is to work with WWF’s Danube-Carpathian Programme. The Danube region
(in Europe) is centre stage for a number of
FISA events, including the 2011 World Rowing
Championships in Bled, Slovenia, the 2011
European Rowing Championships in Plovdiv,
Bulgaria and the 2012 Samsung World Rowing
Cup in Belgrade, Serbia.
• Of all species, freshwater species are declining
the fastest.
• It takes about 1,800 litres of water to produce
one (rowing) tee-shirt.
Couper says that the event management
process now includes best practice guidelines
with respect to clean water policies. These
practices extend to day-to-day rowing activities
and will be spearheaded through World Rowing’s
existing communication avenues. There will also
be monitoring of the environmental impact of
FISA’s events in terms of their effect on water.
Verberne is realistic about the challenge that
lies ahead and believes that the financial side of
the fresh water equation is one of the best ways
to target interest in its improvement especially
amongst businesses.
Building on a foundation of traditional
conservation expertise, WWF also works on
water policy and private sector engagement.
“Water stewardship is a big part of our work,”
says Verberne. “This means coordinating a
collaborative effort between local governments,
companies, NGOs and communities in the
different river basins. We bring everyone together
because no single entity can fix these problems
by themselves.”
“Rowing is a clean sport,” says Verberne. “FISA is
committed to setting new standards in sustainable
event management and if you look at the sport itself,
the people enjoy nature when they row. Also rowing
has no bad reputation in terms of commercialism,
doping and the effect on the environment.
Therefore, WWF is delighted to have FISA as our
first global sports federation partnership.”
“I can see growing interest from companies to
act when they see the economic risks of a non-
sustainable water situation. I feel positive about
the long term,” says Verberne. “In the short term,
we risk that problems related to freshwater will
grow. This alliance with FISA is exciting as it is a
small, but important, step towards increasing
awareness and changing mentalities so that our
long term goals can be achieved.”
FISA’s marketing director, Andrew Couper worked
on the alliance with WWF. “Being a stakeholder
is one thing but we believe that rowers have the
The alliance between WWF and FISA is entirely
based on communication and awareness raising,
which Verberne says “enables us to reach out to a
large new audience with a clear connection to this
topic. FISA gives us the space to communicate
the clean water message.”
● M.S.B.
Issue 17 – August 2011
