UA Students Share Importance of Clean Water

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — University of Alabama students will have an opportunity to teach area schoolchildren the importance of keeping water clean during the second annual Waterfest Student Expo.

The student expo is one piece of the Lake Tuscaloosa North River Watershed Festival, a three-day festival hosted by The University of Alabama Museum of Natural History, the Black Warrior River Clean Water Partnership and the City of Tuscaloosa. The purpose of the festival, which is held April 4 through 6, is to educate community members on where their water comes from and how to preserve it for the future.

“Water is our most critical resource right now,” said Mary Wallace Pitts, an instructor in UA’s geography department, director of undergraduate studies and coordinator of the North River Watershed Management Plan. “Although it seems to be plentiful, it needs to be carefully managed. The way to do that is by making sure everyone knows where water comes from and how it should be properly managed.”

On Friday, April 5, from 9 a.m. to about noon at the Phelps Activity Center, area schoolchildren will learn how watersheds work through a series of interactive and hands-on activities. Representatives from various agencies will lead the activities, while UA students and students from Northside High School’s environmental club will assist.

“We’re allowing the kids to see, touch and envision the real environment and understand how it works in terms of water quality,” Pitts said. “The UA students can help these young children learn, and they will then pass that message on to others.”

The festival also includes an open public forum from 6 to 7:30 p.m. April 4 at the Phelps Activity Center and culminates with the fifth annual Clean Our Lake Day from 8 a.m. to noon April 6. Volunteers will meet at Binion Creek boat landing.

“We have water quality issues, pollution issues and practices people do that are bad for our water,” Pitts said. “We have issues that need to be fixed and, if we can fix them, that’s great, but ideally we need to prevent them from occurring. We do that through education.”