McMaster’s hydration nation

By: Saad Ejaz

Celebrating its third year, the McMaster Water Week, featuring a number of lectures, a career fair, a documentary screening and student research showcase, has come to an end.

McMaster Water Week is a celebration of water and water-related research at McMaster University and around the world. A wide-ranging network of researchers, faculty members, students and community members came together to have an interdisciplinary discussion approaching water from different sides.

Sherry Du, the Chair of the McMaster Water Network Student Chapter emphasizes the unique nature of the McMaster Water Week.

“It is really unique because it is an interdisciplinary discussion and you’re approaching water from all dimensions… that in itself is a tremendous learning opportunity because it is not very often you get that type of experience to discuss and chat with so many diverse people with a common interest,” said Du.

The events fostered a number of discussions around the understanding, prediction and mitigation of water issues in the future. This included a tour of Professor Paulin Coulibaly’s lab at the university. His lab demonstrated the type of modeling systems used to predict flooding and how they can mitigate the disastrous nature of floods.

“We have gotten a good mix of students, faculty members and community members. We are really lucky in that way to engage a broad audience–everyone is interested in water as it is a pressing issue” said Du.

The main event at McMaster Water Week included a screening of a documentary called Project: Ice by an award winning American film director and executive producer, William Kleinert.

The documentary intends to reveal the story of the Great Lakes through the prism of ice from the crossroads of history, science and climate change. It intends to clear the misconception of the climate change solely in the polar regions and shifts its focus to the center of North America with 40 million Canadians and Americans in the Great Lakes basin.

Kleinert emphasizes the importance of science and research communication.

“It really is no longer good enough to just be in the lab or out there doing significant field work. You got to put a human face on it and help people understand why it is important to their lives and quality of life,” said Kleinert.

The McMaster Water Week fostered dialogue and discussion pertaining to water and water-related endeavours at McMaster University and around the world. A sounds number of researchers, faculty members, students and community members came together and discussed the topic of water in light of making a positive difference.

McMaster Water Week was a great success, according to Du.

“Its been wonderful for McMaster Water Network Student Chapter to have the opportunity to plan a university- wide event that lasted a week. It was the work of a lot students and a massive amount of team work…it was something we did with great pleasure – to be able to share and celebrate water with our community.”