“Could you live without water?” asked Freddy Marrufo, Cozumel’s Mayor, to 90 children from the Irma Delfina Baeza Elementary School at a water conservation campaign launch event in November 2015. “As water does not belong only to Cozumel, or Quintana Roo; it is a natural resource shared globally, we all have an obligation to use it correctly.” Mayor Marrufo expressed his concerns about proper consumption of fresh-water resources on Cozumel Island.
At the event, Mayor Marrufo acknowledged MARTI’s work in Cozumel through Grupo Intersectorial (GI) and the support that MARTI’s work offers to Cozumel’s sustainability challenges. “Campaign messages are clear and easy to understand, we are happy to support their release and broadcast during this administration.
Our campaign delivers a message to avoid aquifer pollution and reduce fresh-water consumption at home. The target market of the campaign is housewives as they are the main water consumers at home and children for their capacity to build up a conscience about environmental issues.”
The water campaign includes radio spots, cartels, bus signs banners, web magazine (http://todoincluidolarevista.com/), social media and printed inserts in newspapers. Over 400,000 people were impacted over the first four months of exposure.
The water campaign project has funded by MARTI ($15,400 USD) with matching funds from Cozumel Municipality (through Acuerdo San Gervasio) and $3,000 from GI.
In addition to campaign messaging, there is a school children’s educational component to the program, designed to raise awareness of freshwater and urban water cycles and their relationship to the health of coastal ecosystems and the Cozumel aquifer. GI fostered an alliance with CAPA (state agency of water affairs) and CONANP (conservation and protected area agency) for this purpose. So far, 1810 children have attended the program from 4 public schools in the area.
The water campaign in Cozumel is part of the larger Plan Municipal de Desarrollo Cozumel 2013-2016. It is a great accomplishment to influence Cozumel Municipality public policy.
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