Purely local partners helped promote World Water Day

March 22, 1993, was designated the first World Water Day by the United Nations General Assembly to focus attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources for all. It’s important because billions of people around the world live without safe water.

Louisville Water celebrates World Water Day in various ways. We draw attention to the importance of safe water through stories and social media posts, often focusing on how fortunate we are to have an abundant supply to draw from — the Ohio River.

Even more, Louisville Water helps partners in the community with their advocacy efforts.

The University of Louisville Sustainability Group puts on a Taste the Tap challenge, where students serve samples of Louisville pure tap® alongside samples of popular bottled waters.

It’s a great way to get students that are not from Louisville to try the tap water and find for themselves just how good it really is! Students from the Belknap Campus and the Health Sciences Center put on the taste test.

Participants receive a free reusable bottle and are encouraged to make a commitment to drink from the tap. It’s great-tasting water without all that single-use plastic bottle waste.

U of L Associate Vice President for Health Affairs Nancy Tierney said, “People enjoyed the tasting and the most #1 votes were for tap water.” This student-led effort began in 2017 and has become an annual World Water Day event.

This year, the group known as Creative Mornings Louisville chose to host their monthly meeting on World Water Day at the perfect venue — Louisville Water Tower Park!

Over 200 creatives gathered to hear Tom Owens, a local historian, speak about the mighty Ohio and how important it is to our city and so many others spanning along its 981-mile stretch. Purely local partners rounded out the
event with water ball demonstrations by WaterStep, free trees from TreesLouisville, and “Current” zines by local riso duplicator artist Tim Robertson. (You can watch a video of Owen’s talk here: creativemornings.com/talks/tom-owen/1)

Visit Louisville.edu/Sustainability, WaterStep.org, TreesLouisville.org and RisolutionPress.com to learn more about our partners.