This year’s World Water Day symbol is the hummingbird

By Samantha Johnson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on March 14, 2023.

March 22 marks World Water Day, and the United Nations campaign for 2023 is called Be the Change.

The symbol of the campaign is the hummingbird, and on the United Nations World Water Day webpage (https://www.unwater.org/news/world-water-day-2023-be-change) there is a link to a two-minute animation video summarizing global issues around water.

The UN is asking all school children to create origami hummingbirds and has instructions that can be downloaded from the same page. The goal is to create a global bouquet of hummingbirds. Fun fact, a group of hummingbirds can be called either a bouquet, a shimmer or a charm.

Additionally, at the bottom of the page is a link to other resources, such as a toolkit called The Lazy Person’s Guide to Saving Water, Test Your Water Knowledge and the Water Action Agenda.

Watershed webinar

In Alberta, the 11 Watershed Planning and Advisory Councils are holding the second annual World Water Day webinar. This year’s webinar is called Collaborating with Nature and Each Other.

Executive director of the Milk River Watershed Council Tim Romanow will be the first speaker. Milk River is a transboundary watershed and the council co-manages with both its Saskatchewan and Montana neighbours, and fostering these relationships will be part of his talk. The council is not only concerned with water quality and riparian areas, but also management of species at risk and working with producers.

The second speaker will be Dr. Glynnis Hood, an ecologist and professor of environmental science and vice dean at the University of Alberta’s Augustana Campus in Camrose. She will be discussing the human-wildlife interface, focusing primarily on the beaver, a semi-aquatic mammal.

The online event is free and a spot can be reserved by going to https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/world-water-day-collaborating-with-nature-and-each-other-tickets-513436772207