Having been two years ago in Moldova attending the 2nd Solidarity Water Week, I was impressed by the coverage of mobile phones in this little but very warm hearted country – it seemed that every participant was the owner of at least two mobile phones, letting them proudly ring during the presentations and discussions. This time – perhaps due to the economic crisis – participants had only one, but still seemed not have found yet the conference silence button…

This time I was impressed by free Wifi in the Stephen the Great park in the center of Chisinau – inaugurated only one week ago, where youngsters would sit with their laptops on park benches, surfing intensly while the sun was shining.

On the 14th of April, the Race of the Classics started in Rotterdam. This yearly race between teams from different educational organisations (universities, colleges, etc.) involves classical vessels and takes the groups of students across the North Sea from Rotterdam to the Royal Temple Yacht Club in Ramsgate and back to Amsterdam for the finish.

The Race started in 1989 in a bar in Amsterdam, like any proper student event should of course. Over the years it developed from an event to promote social relations between students of different universities to the largest race with classical vessels in the world. During this time the objective of the race extended to enhance contact with the companies that help to realise ‘The Race’. Moreover, Fun and Competition play an important role.

The EWP supported one of the teams, from Wageningen University, sailing the OBAN, an old fishing vessel, now touring the Northsea and Baltic. With the team, the EWP organised a symposium at Wageningen …

The 2nd European Conference on Water dedicated to “Active involvement in river basin management – plunge into the debate” , taking place on 2-3 April in Brussels – proved to be rather disappointing in both content and speaker quality. While the topic of this event promised active exchange and inspiring debates, the presentations failed to fulfill expectations.

However, active involvement was present at the Aquawareness stand where participants were confronted with a mirror and a poster saying “Who cares….about water?”. Do you?