Water Stewardship
What do a fisherman, a Hippo and your Calvin Klein jeans have in common?
The answer, they all rely on the same water!
Water Stewardship our clothing supply chains, supporting hundreds of thousands of workers, and growing Ethiopia’s economy.
In 2019 the Ethiopian Industrial Parks Development Corporation committed to implementing the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) Standard. There was a compelling need to secure cost effective and long-term management of water risks at their industrial parks and in their catchments. AWS will be at the core of supporting Ethiopia’s ambitions to grow a sustainable apparel and textiles sector to deliver economic and societal benefits across the country.
Water Witness are key supporters of Ethiopia’s efforts on water stewardship and our team (ALP Synergy Limited) joined with Water Witness in December 2019 when they co-hosted the first African Water Stewardship leaders Forum in Addis Ababa, and provided AWS training for more than 30 Ethiopian professionals.
Fast forward to the end of February 2020 and Ant Parsons and Lesley Parsons were back in Addis Ababa with Nick Hepworth (Exec Director Water Witness) and Shona Jenkins (International Programme Officer, Water Witness) doing the final preparations for implementing the AWS Standard at Hawassa Industrial Park.
Our approach was designed to work with the staff and managers from the Industrial Park, taking them step by step through the AWS Standard, exploring what it meant for their facility, their community and their catchment. With 24 participants, our experience of delivering interactive workshops and training helped enormously, to allow our team to apply and share their water stewardship knowledge. The AWS Standard and Guidance were the foundations for the discussions and group work, with each park team exploring what they would need to do to embrace water stewardship and demonstrate compliance.
Alliance for Water Stewardship
