World champion water polo team joins UN conservation effort

The world champion Italian national water polo team has become the latest advocate recruited by the United Nations in its effort to raise international awareness about water conservation, the world body has announced.

The Italian squad, also known as the azzurri (blues), have become the most recent promoters of ‘The Future We Want: Drop by Drop’ – an information campaign spearheaded by the UN Regional Information Centre for Western Europe (UNRIC) which invites Europeans to create a slogan inspiring others to preserve water.

“For the third year running we have reached out to creative Europeans to help us spread the message, this time with a view to the Rio+20 conference and on the crucial issue of water,” said UNRIC Director Afsané Bassir-Pour.

The ‘Drop by Drop’ campaign is part of a larger effort at sensitizing the public to environmental issues ahead of Rio+20, the UN conference on sustainable development, which will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June.

Noting that people with easy access to water “tend to waste it,” Ms. Bassir-Pour said that the campaign encouraged Europeans to design a newspaper ad for the UN emphasizing the importance of water as “the most precious of resources.”

Lorenzo Ravina, head of the Italian delegation, also embraced the newfound cooperation between the Italian team and the UN.

“We are proud for having been chosen by the United Nations to represent this awareness campaign on water preservation,” he said, adding that the Italian Swimming Federation has “always encouraged the culture of water and whatever, not only sport-wise, is linked to it.”

Mr. Ravina said he was confident that through the Italian delegation’s “humble contribution,” the UN was “set to win its challenge” of spreading awareness about the value and importance of water throughout the world.