On Thursday, November 15 the Town of Marana participated in the third annual Marana Water Festival at Crossroads at Silverbell District Park. The event was put on by Arizona Project Wet and staffed by Marana Water and other Town of Marana employees, as well as Tucson Water and the University of Arizona.
Over 800 Marana Unified School District fourth-graders attended the event and learned about the watershed, water conservation, groundwater, and the water cycle. The idea behind the event, and events like it all over the state, is to give students a greater understanding of where their water comes from and why water conservation is so important.
“Once they learn about these concepts at the Marana Water Festival, they will take this information home and apply it there,” said Marana Water Director John Kmiec.
Kmiec noted that water conservation is always very important in Southern Arizona, but even more so with drought conditions impacting the Colorado River, from which Marana receives a lot of its water.
The students attended the event in two separate shifts and went through four different stations. Each station focused on a different aspect of the program and allowed the students hands-on activities to reinforce the ideas.
The volunteers at the event went through a training program to aid them in teaching the program’s lessons.
The Marana Water Festival is one of many Arizona Water Festivals. The hope is that they will instill a deeper understanding of water in the earth system and Arizona’s water resources through a community water festival event, teacher professional development workshop, and extensive volunteer and community involvement.
