Here’s the husband and wife team that’s taking Yemen’s water sector by storm.
Rowyan is the brainchild of hydrogeologist Dr Michael Klingler, who runs the Integrated Water Resources Management Project for German development organization GTZ. Dr Klinger’s team worked closely with Yemen’s National Water Resources Authority to bring the cartoon characters to life and build a comprehensive national awareness strategy, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme.
Rowyan emerged as an idea in 2006. The first images were hand-drawn by Mohammed as-Shaibani, a satirical newspaper cartoonist. Rowyan started off standing on his own two feet, wearing a traditional curved dagger favoured by the northern tribes. But his legs were abandoned in later drafts, and the jambiyya was removed as a northern symbol that might alienate residents of the south. Rowyan and his wife, Rowyana, are now drawn and designed on a computer.
