World Water Day

March 22 has been marked as World Water Day for 30 years in a row. This is a special international day that was established in 1993 by the UN General Assembly as a reminder of water significance for sustainable economic development and social well-being. On this day, many countries around the world hold events aimed at raising awareness about the need to preserve clean water resources and their rational development.

Many representatives of Kharkiv University have been studying the water resources of our region at different times, taking care of their conservation and careful use. For example, the founder of the University Vasyl Karazin wrote about the need to preserve clean and full-flowing rivers, which directly affects forest preservation. He also developed strategies to clean up riverbeds in Kharkiv and studied the healing properties of mineral waters from springs in the Orel River basin.

Kharkiv University representatives were actively engaged in the study of water resources even afterwards. In particular, in 1862, a special commission of the Kharkiv University Medical Faculty concluded that Berezivska mineral water was similar in chemical composition to the water of the Spa spring (in Belgium) and could be used for medicinal purposes. This led to the famous balneological resort creation.

A graduate and professor of Kharkiv University, Nikifor Borysyak, was the first to describe the geology of the Kharkiv artesian basin and justified it as suitable for water supply in Kharkiv. In 1889, Professor Oleksandr Gurov drilled a 600-meter deep artesian well in Kharkiv at his own expense, which provided Kharkiv residents with drinking water for several decades.

Nowadays, the problems of water rational use and conservation are managed by the staff and graduates of the School of Geology, Geography, Recreation and Tourism and the Educational and Research Institute of Ecology of Karazin University.