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World Water Day 2023 – Accelerating Change

On March 22 we celebrated World Water Day – Accelerating Change, by hosting a half day, hybrid (virtual and in-person) event, with an introduction by Dr. Ferdinando Manna, followed by talks from three guest speakers. 

World Water Day 2023 Introduction by Dr. Ferdinando Manna from the School of Engineering, University of Guelph.

Dr. John Spoelstra, a Research Scientist from Environment and Climate Change Canada, started us off with a presentation on how artificial sweeteners can be used to track wastewater. 

Dr. Bassim Abbassi, the Director of Ontario Rural Wastewater Centre, followed up with a presentation on phosphate removal in decentralized and onsite wastewater treatment systems. 

Samantha Mehltretter, a PhD candidate from the School of Engineering, wrapped up our event with a presentation on respectful braiding of indigenous and western knowledge systems for freshwater ecosystem restoration. If you would like to learn more about her presentation and research you can checkout the full report here or connect with Samantha at mehltres@uoguelph.ca and Dr. Andrea Bradford at abradfor@uoguelph.ca.

The topics were diverse, and included something for everyone. They reflected on the broad range in which groundwater influences all of us, every day, in many (often unnoticed and underappreciated) ways. These stimulating talks highlighted some of ways we can accelerate change: 

  1. Eat local and support your community
  1. Reduce your water consumption 
  1. Be curious and know where your water comes from 
  1. Protect nature, plant a tree or garden using native species 
  1. Fix your leaky pipes and empty full septic tanks 
  1. Stop polluting and be mindful about what you are putting down the drain
  1. Clean up local rivers, wetlands and beaches  

In addition to these presentations, we had some student posters displayed throughout the atrium, which provided opportunities for fruitful and engaging discussions. 

We had a great turnout, with passers-by stopping in and a virtual audience who tuned in locally and globally, including listeners from Ukraine and Sweden. 

The event was insightful, thought provoking and served as a reminder of the roles each of us play in making a difference, to protect and conserve our groundwater.  

Thank you to our speakers for their time and knowledge sharing, and to everyone who attended in person and on-line. We look forward to seeing you all again next year! 

If you want to learn more about the history of World Water Day, including the story of the Hummingbird and more ways you can help out, we encourage you to check out the UN World Water Day

“‘One day in the forest, a fire broke out. 
All the animals ran for their lives. 
They stood at the edge of the blaze, looking at the flames in terror and sadness. 
Up above their heads, a hummingbird was flying back and forth to the fire, over and over again. 
The bigger animals asked the hummingbird what she was doing. 
“I am flying to the lake to get water to help put out the fire.” 
The animals laughed at her and said, “You can’t put out this fire!” 
The hummingbird replied, “I’m doing what I can.”’ 

College Royal 2023

College Royal 2023

This past weekend, March 18 and 19th, the University of Guelph hosted its annual College Royal event! 

Students from across campus, from all different departments, had an opportunity to showcase their programs with hands-on activities and displays. 

College Royal brings in more than 20,000 people over the course of one weekend and has been growing in popularity since it started in 1925. 

Each year, MG360 proudly participates in College Royal and shows a few of the many amazing ways groundwater influences our everyday lives through fun activities such as aquifer and rock core demonstrations. 

Although our MG360 team couldn’t be at College Royal this year, since a large group of us are over in Sweden (keep an eye on our blog to find out why), our friends at Creative Encounters in CEPS (College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, UoG) hosted a “Brain Break” booth at their Egg Drop Challenge, with activities geared towards groundwater. 

It was a great turnout with a full Atrium! If you were there and picked up one of our MG360 booklets, here are the answers:

Crosswords, word searches and colouring pages were provided by the Groundwater Foundation. 

We want to say a big thank you to our friends at Creative Encounters (below is the team who ran the Egg Drop and Groundwater Brain Break station) for generously helping us participate when we couldn’t be there in person, checkout their website here to see what they are all about! 

Upcoming: World Water Day is March 22, 2023

This year’s World Water Day is about accelerating change, aimed at solving the global water and sanitation crisis. 🌎

Did you know:

💧 1 in 4 people – 2 billion people – around the world lack safe drinking water.

💧 Almost half of the global population – 3.6 billion people – lack safe sanitation.

💧 Globally, 44 per cent of household wastewater is not safely treated.

💧 Wetlands are being drained for agriculture, with more than 50 per cent lost since 1900.

Join us on March 22, from 9am-noon in the University of Guelph SOE atrium (University of Guelph, Thornbrough Building) to learn more about how you can make a difference, and hear talks from John Spoelstra, Bassim Abbassi and Samantha Mehltretter.

Morwick G360 Groundwater Research Institute is proud to be hosting this event (free – but please register through Eventbrite). We look forward to seeing you there!

Eventbrite: https://lnkd.in/gmdDdRrE

Check out our Linkedin to stay up to date on events!

Water facts can be found at www.worldwaterday.org

The January Newsletter from Morwick G360 is here!

Happy New Year! The Morwick G360 Institute is very pleased to share with you our January 2023 newsletter.

Our multi-disciplinary field-focused team has worked hard this last year to advance the state of groundwater science and enhance global respect for groundwater through partnerships, hands-on events, and community engagement. However, it is truly our close collaborations with site owners, groundwater technology and service companies, and government sponsors that sets us apart and enables our success. We appreciate everyone’s contributions, from funding to on-the-ground efforts using expert knowledge to collect novel datasets and their interpretations.

Click here to learn about our newest team members, our projects and activities, awards, graduations, and publications over the past year.

Congratulations to MG360 PI, Dr. Erica Pensini, on her feature in Media release “Modifying water’s structure as low-energy method for removing pollutants”

Dr. Pensini and her team of UofG researchers, along with scientists from the Canadian Light Source (CLS) at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) are developing low-energy strategies to purify polluted water.

Check out the article for more information!

https://www.lightsource.ca/public/news/2022-23-q3-oct-dec/modifying-waters-structure-as-low-energy-method-for-removing-pollutants.php

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