World Water Day events to highlight conservation

Muscat: Middle East Desalination Research Centre (MEDRC) will be commemorating world water day at their Al Hail headquarters on Thursday.
This year’s theme for the United Nations (UN) designated day is ‘nature for water’. The goal is to highlight and understand nature-based solutions to current water challenges.
Commenting on the event, MEDRC Centre Director, Ciaran O Cuinn said: “Each year, UN World Water Day focuses the world on the importance of water to human life, society and our environment. At MEDRC, the day is always a huge event and this year is no different. From awareness-raising walkathons to academic symposia, art competitions and exciting research challenges, this will be out largest celebration yet,” he said. Her Highness Sayyida Basma Fakhri Al Said, mental health advocate and Omani Woman of the Year 2016 will attend the morning’s event as guest of honour.
MEDRC Water Research will mark the occasion with a series of events and celebrations, planned to take place at their headquarters. The day will be split into two parts with youth water celebratory events taking place in the morning and an academic symposium reserved for the afternoon.
The day’s events will include the Walk for Water Walkathon that will feature wheelchair bound Abdullah Al Salmi accompanying well renowned walker Hilmi Al Kindi on 20Km Walkathon. MEDRC will also hold a student art competition in collaboration with Planet International School and sponsored by Oman LNG. Aflaj, Oman’s ancient irrigation system was chosen as the theme for the contest.
This will be followed by alumni lecture series and the giving away of the Young Oman Water Researchers Award. The award seeks to recognise excellence in the field of water research in Oman and encourage researchers to focus their attention on water to the benefit of Oman and its people. Furthermore, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) will be signed between Caledonian College of Engineering and MEDRC.
Lastly, there will be the ‘harvesting water from air challenge’. MEDRC will host the Sunglacier challenge, a global challenge to accelerate dew harvesting techniques, by Mr. Jaap Feil, Chairman of Wetskills foundation and held in conjunction with Sultan Qaboos University.
Teams from the Netherlands and Oman will build their own devices and compete to see who can get the most water out of air within a 48-hour period starting from 10.15 am on the morning of World Water Day.