Adopt-a-River side event at the Rotary International Convention

When: 26-31 May 2023

Where: Melbourne, Australia

UNEP and Rotary International, with its 1.4 million members, are looking to further develop the Adopt a River for Sustainable Development partnership on issues including restoration of freshwater ecosystem, solid waste management, wastewater, and mobilizing communities, particularly youth, for environmental action.

The two sides are looking to collaborate more closely after Rotary International recently added environmental activities as a key pillar of its work.

In December 2019 UNEP and Rotary District 9212 covering Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan, signed a Memorandum of Understanding, and collaboration was further strengthened after a meeting in August 2022 between the president of Rotary International, Jennifer Jones, and UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen. The two partners plan to sign a global MoU later this year that will cover a broader cooperation on environmental issues.

The side event, led by Rotary’s Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group with UNEP support, will highlight Adopt-a-River initiatives, challenges and achievements in Kenya and Ethiopia, and across the world while also highlighting a new project to clean-up and restore the heavily polluted River Bhavani, a 217 km perennial river which flows through the states of Kerala and Tamil in southern India.