March 20, 2015

March 20, 2015
For Immediate Release

WATERLOO – The University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University will celebrate World Water Day on March 23 with a variety of events, including a graduate fair, keynote speakers and a screening of the award-winning documentary, Watermark.

The United Nations established World Water Day in 1993 to increase global awareness of the importance of freshwater to the environment, agriculture, energy, health and trade. This year’s theme is Water and Sustainable Development.

To mark World Water Day, Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo are co-hosting a full day of activities to highlight the breadth and depth of the two institutions’ water research. The event is an opportunity for water researchers, practitioners and stakeholders to share information with each other and with the community.

This year’s celebration is being held from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Paul Martin Centre and Senate and Board Chamber on the Waterloo campus of Wilfrid Laurier University. Keynote speakers include:

• Chris Turner: One of Canada's leading writers and speakers on sustainability and the global green economy, Turner will deliver an address starting at 10:30 a.m. titled, The Next Leap in Sustainability: Getting from Less Bad to Much Better for the World's Water Supply.
• Robert Sandford: Author, speaker and EPCOR Chair of the Canadian Partnership Initiative in support of the United Nations Water for Life Decade, Sandford will deliver an address at 2:30 p.m. titled, The Future We Want: Water and Climate Security in a Warming World.

The documentary film Watermark will be shown starting at 4 p.m. For more information about the day’s activities, visit Laurier's World Water Day website. 

The event is sponsored by Laurier’s Institute for Water Science and the Centre for Cold Regions and Water Interdisciplinary Network of Students, and the University of Waterloo’s Water Institute and Students of the Water Institute – Graduate Section.

– 30 –