FSU Organization Helps Spread Awareness on World Water Day

March 22nd marks World Water Day, and to celebrate, Florida State University's "Take Back the Tap" organization hosted an event to make students aware of water conservation, cleanliness, and accessibility.

"The purpose of this event is to educate students, faculty, and staff, everybody, the campus community pretty much, on different water issues; whether that's water quality, water conservation, pollution, access," says Savannah Rodrigue, Take Back the Tap Coordinator.

To really drive home water issues, "Take back the Tap" set up five different stations on Union Green. Some were designed to show countries that had poor water accessibility, while others allowed students to discuss how to do a better job conserving water.

The blind water taste test station let attendees put their brains to the test...is it possible to tell the difference between bottled and tap water?

"I could taste a difference, but I didn't really know which was what. I guess one tasted a bit more 'flavored' versus the other one," says Rashad Charles, a student at FSU.

At the end of the day, students left with a new outlook on water, and some were even convinced to make changes in their own life.

"I definitely can say that I know more now after going through these activities than I did before," Tamia Brinson, another FSU student. "I learned about some countries that didn't really have water that I was kind of shocked about. I already kind of knew about Haiti, but Papua New Guinea, stuff like that didn't have it."

"Take Back the Tap" encourages students to invest in reusable water bottles filled with tap or fountain water. Doing this helps eliminate wasteful plastic bottles and leads to monetary savings.