Eleven-year old Cheng Yiyu dreams of a future when water is purified in a magic machine that ensures long life, cleans the polluted oceans and allow all creatures to live in harmony.

 

Her vision was represented in the "The Charm of Water", a drawing done with four classmates at Jimei school in Qingdao city, east China's Shandong Province, which was awarded a special prize here on Sunday in an international contest on the theme of environmental protection.

 

The contest is part of the "Sketches Around the World" campaign launched by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the France-based Veolia Environment, a leading international environmental protection company.

 

The campaign aims to increase children's awareness of environmental protection and to collect messages from children around the world, on the theme "The future development on the globe".

 

Around the world, 35,000 children aged nine to 11 have participated in the event. Each country selects a national winner whose drawings will be sent to Paris and shown in an exhibition on World Environment Day on June 5. The exhibition will tour internationally.

 

More than 2,000 Chinese pupils from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Qingdao and Shenzhen have participated in the contest.

 

China's economy has grown rapidly over the past two decades, but with a high environmental cost, which has endangered sustainable development.

 

To reverse the trend, the government has pledged tougher measures to protect the environment and to ensure coordinated economic, social and environmental development.

 

Jorge Mora, president of Veolia Environment Asia, hoped the drawings would encourage more people to get involved in environmental protection, creating a more harmonious world for the next generation.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 17, 2006)