San Miguel de Allende celebrates World Water Day with week of events

A nongovernmental organization in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, has big plans to celebrate World Water Day on March 22, extending the festivities through the following week.

Dedicated to supporting communities without access to safe potable water and developing sustainable solutions to the problem, Caminos de Agua (Paths of Water) has scheduled a week’s worth of events, discussions and activities to entertain and inform.

Executive director Dylan Terrell said that the organization has several important goals for the week.

“We believe that it’s fundamental to inform the public about the growing scarcity of our water supplies, as well as the increasing pollution of the potable water left to us,” he said.

“We want to use World Water Week as an opportunity to educate the people of our region about the causes of these problems, what are the risks to health, what can they do about it personally and as part of their communities, and what actions they can begin to take right now,” he said.

The San Miguel de Allende municipal government and the Life Water Coalition, a group of 15 local nongovernmental organizations concerned about water problems in the region, are also pitching in to organize and administer the events.

The week will kick off with the Municipal Water Fair on March 22 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. With lots of family-oriented events, as well as music, entertainment, food and educational activities, there will be something for all ages. Admission is free.

The special guest speaker for the week will be Joaquín Murrieta, an ecologist with the Tucson, Arizona-based Watershed Management Group (WMG). He will give talks in both English and Spanish and conduct practical workshops on topics such as constructing microwatersheds, rain gardens and other rain collection techniques.

“We need to begin to construct homes that have their own incorporated systems of rainwater harvesting, and this is a change that can be done without depending on the government or others, but on systems that I and everyone else are capable of building,” Murrieta said.

There will also be a benefit dinner and other educational and bilingual activities throughout the week. Check the Caminos de Agua website for a full listing of events.