News

Every year, the Waterloo Wellington Children's Groundwater Festival helps hundreds of elementary school students discover the hidden world of groundwater and the importance of protecting our water resources. This year, members of the Society of the Water Institute Graduate Students (SWIGS) helped bring those lessons to life through a new four-part educational video series created for the festival’s virtual programming.

Urban water stress is no longer a future concern. Water scarcity is already shaping how cities grow and develop. This challenge is not only about how much water is available, but also about where water flows and how long it stays within urban systems. One key player in this urban water cycle is the stormwater pond. Commonly found across cities, these ponds are often seen as simple drainage facilities.  In reality, they play a much larger role. Stormwater ponds store water, redirect flow pathways, and control how long water remains in the system, making them important nodes in urban hydrology. 

Dr. Nandita Basu delivered a distinguished public lecture at the University of Victoria, highlighting integrated pathways to water, food, and energy sustainability through the SOLUTIONSCAPES framework. Her talk emphasized that while many effective environmental solutions already exist, their impact depends on coordinated, landscape-scale implementation that accounts for real-world complexity. The lecture also marked her recognition with the Distinguished Women Scholars Award.

The Microplastics Fingerprinting research project has released their latest impact report. This report showcases the remarkable scientific advancements and societal contributions our researchers have made since the microplastics fingerprinting research group's launch.

As part of the Collaborative Water Program’s WATER 601 course, student teams delivered final presentations featuring integrated water management solutions to complex water challenges, sharing their ideas with a panel of experts from the University of Waterloo and the Canada Water Agency (CWA). The exercise goes beyond a typical class assignment. It asks students to think across disciplines, weigh ecological, social and economic trade-offs and deliver practical recommendations that could inform real policy and practice.

A new study led by Water Institute researcher Mark Servos and colleagues in the Servos Group has detected antidepressants, opioids and other drugs of abuse accumulating in freshwater fish living downstream of urban wastewater treatment plants. Using a newly developed analytical method, the team found compounds such as fentanyl, methadone and venlafaxine in multiple wild fish species, marking the first documentation of these substances in wild fish in Canada.

Peatlands cover upwards of 12 per cent of Canada’s landscape and store more carbon than all other ecosystems in the country combined, making them one of Canada’s most powerful natural climate allies. Yet until now, information on these critical ecosystems has been difficult to find. To address this gap, the Can-Peat Network at the University of Waterloo launched the Canadian Peatland Data Portal in early January, the country’s first national platform dedicated to centralizing peatland carbon metadata.

New research by Fridah Silas, a PhD student in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability and Collaborative Water Program student working with Dr. Dustin Garrick is exploring how farmers and actors across food, water, and energy sectors can work with nature, and with each other, to support more sustainable agriculture in Ontario.

On March 20, the Water Institute brought together researchers, students and industry leaders to mark World Water Day 2026, highlighting the United Nations global theme of Water and Gender. The event explored water inequality, infrastructure challenges and shared responsibility, emphasizing the importance of interdisciplinary research and collaboration in addressing complex water challenges and ensuring safe, reliable water for all.

Waterloo graduate student Thiruni Thirimanne a PhD candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been awarded the Water Institute’s 2026 John Parish Memorial Graduate Scholarship, recognizing excellence in research on river systems and fluvial geomorphology.