You may have missed a lot during World Water Week

By Letter to the Editor on March 26, 2018.

Canada Water Week is celebrated each year the third week in March and includes World Water Day on March 22.

For more than 10 years now, several local organizations have participated by setting up displays in public areas about a wide variety of topics relating to water.

This year the displays were in the Public Library March 19-23.

On Monday, March 19, launching Canada Water Week, the library showed a film that can be borrowed from the library: “Water on the Table.”

The library also displayed some of their books on the topic of water, and showed noon-hour webinars on “Goods and Services of Natural Prairie: Prairie’s Got the Goods!”

Organizations that set up displays at the library were:

Council of Canadians – which encouraged people to take a pledge not to use bottled water in the next week. The literature on their table gave information about comparative costs (both environmental and financial) of tap water and bottled water.

Grasslands Naturalists and the MH Interpretive Program – which featured two of their hot-off-the press publications: “Wildflowers of Medicine Hat & Area,” and “Birding Trails of SE Alberta.” These publications can be also accessed from the Grasslands Naturalists website. Also displayed was the riparian health study showing a map of the river and the study areas and results.

Hat Smart – which showed opportunities for saving water by preventing leaking taps and toilets. Brochures on indoor and outdoor water saving tips, and HatSmart rebate programs were available. A handy tip for knowing when to stop watering the lawns was shown: Stop watering when an upturned frizzy is full.

The Paddling Club Film Fest was on Tuesday, Praxis had activities for preschool children and their parents in the Children’s Library and SEAWA had information about the riparian restoration project in which landowners could apply for a grant up to $5,000 to help with restoring health to their riparian areas.

Its worthwhile checking out the websites for both the UN World Water Day and Canada Water Week. Also all of the participating organizations have websites where you can find out how to participate in local activities.

Martha Munz Gue

Medicine Hat