World Water Day is March 22nd

World Water Day is an annual event celebrated on March 22nd. The day focuses attention on the importance of universal access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities in developing countries. The National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO) is celebrating this year’s World Water Day by releasing a series of videos and podcasts, and by highlighting the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) Nanotechnology Signature Initiative (NSI) on Water Sustainability—and the role of nanotechnology in providing clean and affordable water solutions.water pouring into glass

Podcasts: As part of the NNCO’s ongoing series, two podcasts will be released for World Water Day. One podcast features Arizona State University’s Paul Westerhoff discussing the bold new research efforts at the Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment Nano-Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT). The other podcast features Theresa Dankovich of Folia Water talking about nanotechnology-enabled water filters that cost just pennies to make. Visit the Nano Videos and Podcasts page to listen to these podcasts.

Nano Nuggets: A number of new videos on nanotechnology and water will be released in honor of World Water Day. The featured experts include Dionysios Dionysiou from the University of Cincinnati, Isabel Escobar from the University of Kentucky, Vinka Oyanedel-Craver from the University of Rhode Island, Debora Rodrigues from the University of Houston, and Reagan Turley, a Ph.D. candidate from Dr. Jorge Gardea-Torresdey’s lab at the University of Texas at El Paso. Visit the Nano Videos and Podcasts page to watch these videos.

Water NSI: In honor of World Water Day, the NNCO is highlighting the Nanotechnology Signature Initiative dedicated to water, Water Sustainability through Nanotechnology: Nanoscale Solutions to Global Scale Problems. The goal of the Water NSI is to take advantage of the unique properties of engineered nanomaterials to generate significant breakthroughs in addressing our Nation’s water challenges. This initiative is designed to aid in the development of technological solutions that can alleviate current stresses on the water supply and provide methods to sustainably utilize water resources in the future. The thrust areas include increasing water availability, improving the efficiency of water delivery, and enabling next-generation water monitoring.

For more information, see the NNCO press release in the Nano.gov newsroom.