UTEP's One Water Cluster and UACJ faculty and staff Present:
March 23 - 28, 2026
World Water Day, observed annually on March 2nd since 1993, celebrates water and raises awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water.
The UTEP One Water Cluster, faculty and staff at UACJ are inviting you to our annual celebration of World Water Day in March 2026. As we have for the past four years, we will celebrate with a week of interdisciplinary events. These events are designed to engage faculty, students, and community partners who are working on the issue of water from various perspectives. This creates a public platform to increase visibility of water scholarship and activism. It also provides an opportunity to develop new connections and working relationships on the topic. We expect to have a mixture of online and in-person events.
This year’s theme is: “Water, Health and Gender”.
Water Week 2026 highlights the interconnections between water access, public health, and gender equality. Around the world, limited access to clean water and sanitation affects women and men differently, often placing a disproportionate burden on women and girls who manage household water collection and care responsibilities. Ensuring fair and sustainable access to water supports health, education, and opportunity for all, strengthening the foundations of equity and community well-being.
Special Guest - Kathleen O'Reilly
Kathleen O’Reilly, PhD
Dr. Kathleen O’Reilly is a Professor in the Department of Geography and Texas A&M University Presidential Impact Fellow. She has 30 years of experience doing research on gender, water and sanitation (WASH) interventions in rural and urban India. She is trained as a feminist geographer, ethnographer, and South Asia scholar. Over the course of her career, she has sought an in-depth understanding of internal community and household dynamics as they pertain to access to resources, like water and toilets, for women and socially marginalized groups. Her research highlights the need to understand the complexities of social relations and sanitation policy as they pertain to spatial patterns of inequality in WASH. Her work has been funded by a Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship, the National Science Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among others.
Event Agenda
Time |
SESSION |
Format |
Details |
|
9:00a 12:30p |
World Water Week Community Organizations Tabling |
Tabling Event |
UTEP Centennial Corridor |
|
9:00a 9:30a |
Sundrop: A Sustainable Solar Water Disinfection Container for Vulnerable Communities |
In Person |
Alibell Matheus |
|
10:00a |
Inauguración de exhibición de pinturas |
In Person |
Centro Cultural las Fronteras |
|
10:00a 11:00a |
METAGENOMICS IN IRRIGATION WATER QUALITY |
In Person |
Rocio Infante-Ramirez & Karina Ibarra-Legarda |
|
10:00a |
Visual poetic essay: The return of water |
Display |
Brenda Ceniceros Ortiz |
|
10:00a |
La Saladita: Despite the years, continues to accumulate in what was El Salado, a salt factory in Samalayuca, Chihuahua |
Exhibit |
Berenice Ivette Vazquez Bernal |
|
10:00a |
Verses of Water: collective poetic cartography |
Exhibit |
Montserrat Hernández Ramírez |
|
2:30p 3:15p |
Welcome: Water, Health and Gender of Water Week |
Opening Remarks |
President Dr. Heather Wilson (UTEP) |
|
3:30p 4:30p |
Water quality in the border region and its impacts in the human health |
Virtual |
Beatriz Rocha |
|
4:30p 5:30p |
The use of reclaimed water in the border region |
Virtual |
Maria de Lourdes Ballinas |
|
4:00p 5:00p |
The impact of data analysis and artificial intelligence on water treatment and reuse. |
In Person |
Raúl Alejandro Viesca Magadán |
Day 2: Tuesday, March 24
Time |
SESSION |
Format |
Details |
|
9:00p |
Who deserves water? Water, health, and gender through design |
Exhibit |
Gloria Guadalupe Vázquez Apodaca |
|
9:00a 9:30a |
Water Aporophobia |
In Person |
Jorge Antonio Breceda Pérez |
|
9:30a 10:30a |
Water scarcity AI solution applying the natural water cycle model at the US - Mexico border states |
Virtual |
Jorge Garza-Ulloa |
|
10:30a 11:30a |
Water and artificial intelligence |
In Person |
Diego Almanzo |
|
11:30a 12:30p |
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE USE OF RENEWABLE ENERGIES |
In Person |
Ing. Marycruz Reyes & Ing. Maya Juárez |
|
1:00p 1:20p |
Mitigating Urban Flooding Through Residential Rainwater Harvesting Using GIS and HEC-HMS |
In Person |
Isabel Lopez |
|
1:25p 3:00p |
Green stormwater infrastructure for El Paso: What should it look like – and how do we get there? |
In Person |
Jenifer Barr & Mike Gaglio |
|
3:00p 3:30p |
Water, School, Environmental and Gender Education. Experiences in Ciudad Juárez |
In Person |
Alfredo Limas Hernández |
3:30p 4:00p |
Data centers in the Paso del Norte region and the risks to cross-border public health. | Virtual |
Thelma García |
|
4:00p |
Panel: Water, society and its relationship with the Sustainable Development Goals |
In Person |
Dra. Celina Alvarado Gamiño |
Day 3: Wednesday, March 25
Time |
SESSION |
Format |
Details |
|
8:30a 9:00a |
Student Poster Participant Breakfast |
|
UTEP IDRB Back Foyer |
|
9:00p |
Who deserves water? Water, health, and gender through design |
Exhibit |
Gloria Guadalupe Vázquez Apodaca |
|
9:00a 10:00a |
Poster Participant Session Present |
In Person |
UTEP IDRB Back Foyer |
|
9:00a 5:00p |
Immersive Room - Irrigation Ditches |
Exhibit |
Centro cultural Las Fronteras |
|
10:00a 11:00a |
Book presentation: Water Justice. Water Scarcity in the Rio Grande Hydrological Region |
In Person |
José Carlos Chávez Arias |
|
11:00a 12:00p |
Visual poetic essay: The return of water |
In Person |
Brenda Ceniceros Ortiz |
|
11:00a 12:00p |
Flowing movement practice |
In Person |
Fernanda Lugo & Melissa Melpigliano |
|
12:30p 2:00p |
Sanitation Revolution: Placing gender at the center of global water, sanitation, and hygiene policy |
In Person |
Keynote Speaker |
2:00p 3:00p |
Groundwater Signatures and Mixing Patterns around El Paso del Norte Area of the Rio Grande Aquifer System | In Person |
Astrid Lozano |
|
3:30p |
Short Film - PBS archive: Echoes of the Rio |
In Person |
Centennial Museum |
Day 4: Thursday, March 26
Time |
SESSION |
Format |
Details |
|
9:00p |
Who deserves water? Water, health, and gender through design |
Exhibit |
Gloria Guadalupe Vázquez Apodaca |
|
9:00a 10:00a |
RECHARGE ALTERNATIVES FOR RESTORING STATIC WATER LEVELS |
In Person |
Ing. Maya Juarez |
|
10:00a 11:30a |
Detection of non-visible leaks |
In Person |
Ing. Paola Arely Moreno Pulido |
|
10:30a 12:00p |
Climate Change and Human Adaptations in the Arctic |
In Person |
Olga Lauter |
|
11:30a 12:00p |
Water culture, perceptions and perspectives of the average citizen |
In Person |
Lizardo García Soto |
|
12:00p |
Comprehensive flood control system and sanitary drainage infrastructure in the Las Víboras stream. |
In Person |
Ing. Cesar Triana |
|
12:30p 1:00p |
The Effectiveness of Using Eco-Friendly/Environmental Digital Games: A Text Mining of Players' Experiential Narratives |
In Person |
Yowei Kang, Ph.D. |
|
|
Using AI-Assisted Image Analysis Tools to Analyze Water Conservation Campaigns to Generate Actionable Consumer Insights: Managerial and Methodological Implications |
In Person |
Kenneth C. C. Yang, Ph.D. |
|
1:00p 1:40p |
Digital Health Ecosystems: Social Marketing Strategies and Technology for Water Justice |
Virtual |
Dra. Elisa Barrera Ramírez |
|
1:30p 2:30p |
Water as a fundamental right: health, gender and water justice in everyday life |
Virtual |
Manuel Ornelas Morales |
|
2:30p |
Transforming the green spaces of our city, reducing water waste, promoting native flora, and mitigating urban fragmentation |
In Person |
Genesis Rodriguez |
|
3:00p 4:00p |
The Women Bring the Water: Braiding Water and Memory through Rematriation |
In Person |
Andrea Everett |
|
4:00p 5:00p |
Rio Bosque Wetlands Park |
In Person |
Sergio Samaniego |
|
4:30p 5:00p |
What the water hides and the system ignores: Resistant parasites, occupational risk, and the public health debt owed to women. |
In Person |
Roxana Garcia |
Day 5: Friday, March 27
|
9:00a 11:00a |
Water, health and gender in Mexican mining contexts. A comparative analysis. |
In Person |
Dra. Verónica |
|
12:00p 2:00p |
Clausura - Premiacion |
|
|
|
5:00p 6:00p |
Presentation (Comisión Internacional De Límites y Aguas; CILA) |
In Person |
Lic. Blanca Selenis Cabello Ribota |
|
8:00a 10:00a |
Roberto Bustamante Water Treatment Plant Tour |
In Person |
Sergio Samaniego Roberto Bustamante Water Treatment Plant |
|
11:00a 1:30p |
Featuring: |
In Person |
Janette Terrazas |
|
11:00a 7:00p |
La Rodadora Espacio Interactivo |
In Person |
Museum in Ciudad Juárez |
|
(2 hous) TBA |
Keystone Heritag Park Tour |
In Person |
Keystone Heritage Park |
