The Water Project: celebrate and educate!

Water is as precious as it is scarce in the desert. This weekend Tucsonans will celebrate water, our most valuable natural resource.

The Water Project-- Tucson's inaugural water festival-- will take place citywide March 26-28.

Festivities start Friday, March 26 with a film festival at The Screening Room in downtown Tucson. The evening begins at 6 p.m. with short locally-produced films. The feature film-- Blue Gold: World Water Wars-- begins at 8 p.m.

On Saturday at Himmel Park in midtown Tucson, the Water Project will hold an Enviro-Vendor Fair with art, food, music, and dance from noon - 6 p.m. Solar Rock-- a solar-powered music concert-- will take place simultaneously at Himmel Park.

Sunday's events will begin with a cross-cultural, inter-faith water ritual at Sabio Canyon. Check the Water Project website for meet-up and carpool information. Sunday afternoon, an Enviro-Vendor Fair and educational workshops will take place at Armory Park Center.

The Water Project grew out of a series of community brainstorming meetings. Artists, scientists, politicians, educators, developers, water conservationists, city planners, youth, and other community members who are interested in addressing water issues came together to develop the mult-faceted event.

Tucson’s Water Project was scheduled to coincide with World Water Week. Water workshops and celebrations will be held in other countries and cities-- creating an international observance of World Water Day, an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED).

For more details and a full schedule of events, check out The Water Project website and the Solar Rock website.

This article originally appeared in my Baby Boomer Examiner column.