On March 22, World Water Day was celebrated at Villa Maria Academy. Even though this day is not incredibly popular, World Water Day is important not just for the United States, but for the entire world.

World Water Day is an annual United Nations observance day. It has been held on the 22nd of March every year since 1993, and it is used to highlight how important fresh water is. Water is obviously necessary for a human being to survive, but statistics on how few people in the world actually receive fresh water are staggering.

According to World Wild Life, 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to water, and 2.7 billion have a hard time finding water for at least one month out of the year. Finding water that is actually sanitary is also a huge problem for billions of people, which exposes them to diseases such as cholera and typhoid fever.

World Water Day is used to advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources to help these people find water in any way possible.

Villa Junior Leah Markiewicz is a member of the Villa Green Team, which strives to make the Erie community sustainable. She decided to bring World Water Day to Villa and organized her own fundraiser for The Water Project. This organization helps families across Sub-Saharan Africa gain access to safe water.

Villa ended up raising over $500, which will help The Water Project significantly.

“I decided to put this fundraiser together because I feel like World Water Day is something that not everyone knows about,” Leah said. “Especially after finding out about World Water Day’s theme this year, which was groundwater, I wanted to make sure to spread the word about how important it is to conserve our resources and donate to others who need access to safe water.”

Assistant Vice President of Academics and Student Affairs Mrs. Seip seconds Leah’s thoughts on World Water Day, and she is very grateful and proud that Villa could raise so much money for The Water Project.

“The members of Cathedral Prep and Villa Maria Academy’s administration are so happy to be able to support such a worthy cause at Prep and Villa,” Mrs. Seip said. “The importance of clean drinking water really requires worldwide discussion and response so we are proud that our students were able to support this cause. It is awesome to see our Green Team hard at work.”

Leah’s work for The Water Project will help those in Africa find the resources they need to survive, and Villa is incredibly proud of how much time and effort she put into World Water Day.