The IMDEA Water Institute is once again joining in the celebration of World Water Day. This day is celebrated every 22 March with the aim of encouraging people to take action in their own lives to change the way they use, consume and manage water. These pledges by individuals and communities will contribute to a Water Action Agenda that will also include commitments from governments, businesses, organisations, institutions and coalitions on a larger scale.

World Water Day 2023 encourages people to “be the change you want to see in the world”.

Dysfunction throughout the water cycle undermines progress on all major global issues, from health to hunger, gender equality to jobs, education to industry, and disasters to peace.

In 2015, the world committed to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 as part of the 2030 Agenda – the promise that everyone would have safely managed water and sanitation by 2030.

The latest data show that governments must work on average four times faster to meet SDG 6 on time, but this is not a situation that any single actor or group can solve. Water affects everyone, so we need everyone to take action.

IMDEA Water wanted to join in the commemoration of World Water Day 2023 by receiving a visit from 60 students from IES Mateo Alemán (Alcalá de Henares, Madrid). The students were able to learn first-hand about the work of the different research groups at IMDEA Water, as well as visiting our chemical analysis laboratory. They participated in the following activities:

• Nature knows best: bacteria for cleaning wastewater
• Membranes mission: supporting change
• Are we polluting beyond our means?
• Biodiversity as an indicator of the health of aquatic ecosystems
• The micro-organisms in water – how do we study them?
• Water quality control tour

These activities are part of MADRIDNIGHT, a science outreach project, coordinated by Fundación madri+d and funded by the European Union within the Horizon Europe Programme, under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions with grant agreement no. 101061343.