Join us for the 2021 Virtual Drinking Water Festival!

Concord, NH - Over the past three decades, thousands of students have learned about protecting water at the New Hampshire Drinking Water Festival. This year the Festival is virtual and kicks off today! The 2021 Virtual Festival also includes the third annual Poetry Contest for third, fourth and fifth graders, making this a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, Math) educational opportunity.

The 2021 Virtual Festival is packed with over 40 videos and activities that connect with student’s daily lives and explore how to keep water clean. Major themes include the water cycle, watersheds, groundwater, wildlife, the human water cycle, Water Heroes (career fields) and the Poetry Contest. Engaging lessons range from calculating a personal water footprint to finding costly silent toilet leaks and learning how caddisflies stabilize streambeds against erosion. The online lessons and activities are designed for students in third through fifth grades, but with the timeless importance of clean water, students in other grades (and adults) can benefit from them as well. All materials are free and openly available. Students participating in the Poetry Contest should submit entries by April 30, 2021.

The Virtual Water Festival and Poetry Contest is now available at our new New Hampshire Drinking Water Festival website. There, you will find the virtual lessons and also information about how your school can participate in the free in-person annual festival in May 2022.

The Virtual Festival is only possible through the generous donations of time and expertise from the many partners who contributed to this year’s event, including:

Amanda Gorman & Climate Reality
Arizona Project WET
Battle River Watershed
CDM Smith Inc.
Channel 8, Boulder, Colorado
CoCoRaHS
Concord General Services
Earth Echo International
KQED Quest
Manchester Water Works
New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services
New Hampshire Department of Transportation Stormwater Program
PBS
Plymouth Village Water District
Potter County Conservation
Project WET
Squam Lakes Association
Stroud Water Research Center
Sullivan County Conservation District and Natural Resources
UNESCO World Water Assessment Program
Washington State Department of Ecology
Water Footprint Calculator

If you would like to learn more, please contact Lara Hooper, NHDES Water Education Coordinator, at lara.hooper@des.nh.gov or (603) 271-4071.