Though drinking bottled water isn’t the same as killing someone, lack of sustainable water practices around the world could exacerbate an already heinous lack of clean drinking water that claims a life, literally, every few seconds.
Spurned on by the United Nations International Water Day on Sat., Mar. 22, the Rotaract Club organized Water Awareness Day at the University of Calgary. The event–which took place Tue., Mar. 25 in the North Courtyard of MacEwan Student Centre–brought together a number of clubs interested in promoting smart water policies and practices.
“We’re trying to allow the university community to be aware of their own water consumption and how they affect the environment locally, [as well as] to raise awareness about international water issues and the lack of adequate clean water and sanitation,” said Rotaract Club international director Derrick Jones.
The issue of sustainable water practices is especially important in Alberta, where drought has already been a serious problem.
“In the future, it could be drastic if we don’t start to [implement] sustainable policies, procedures and practices,” said Jones.
Beyond Alberta, water issues are even more pressing. Jones suggested that roughly 2.6 billion individuals around the world have no access to clean drinking water and sanitation. The consequence of this is that a person dies from water-related illness every 15 seconds. The event tried to impress this alarming statistic upon participants.
“We did a tribute ceremony for the lives lost to inadequate access to clean water and sanitation throughout the day,” said Jones. “One [construction paper hand] represents four lives lost a minute and our water tribute represents an hour, so it represents over 240 people who lost their lives that hour. Then, we had participants write a tribute for people who lost their lives that hour [on the hands].”
The display will be in the showcase in MSC courtyard for one week.
Jones noted that individual students could make a positive impact upon water resources by using low-flush toilets, taking shorter showers, being aware of government policies for sustainable water usage and avoiding the purchase of bottled water. He remarked that the U of C is already engaged in a number of initiatives, such as opening the Office for Sustainability and installing more efficient toilets, urinals and sinks.
One of the main aspects of the event–which also featured booths run by all involved clubs and movies throughout the day–was a panel discussion in the afternoon that dealt with the oilsands.
“It takes approximately three barrels of water to get one barrel of oil,” said Development Studies Club member and event co-organizer Arunan Sivalingam. “That’s fresh water from the Athabasca River.”
Sivalingam stressed that the event, through its interactive stations and various booths representing the organizations and clubs involved, was able to have a positive impact on students.
“Our main focus was not to try to focus on international or local, but to bridge the two together,” she said. “As students here on campus in Calgary, we could relate to the issues going on around the world.”