City of Palm Springs Mayor Christy Holstege is joining mayors across the country for the 10th Anniversary of the National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation by asking residents to commit to use water more wisely. Mayor Holstege enlisted Desert Water Agency (DWA), which serves Palm Springs, to help boost participation and share water conservation information.
The annual challenge, April 1- 30, is a non-profit national community service campaign that encourages leaders to inspire their residents to take a short pledge at mywaterpledge.com to use water more efficiently, reduce pollution, and save energy.
“A big thank you to Desert Water Agency for joining me in this important nationwide challenge encouraging our residents and businesses to take the pledge to conserve water and reduce our carbon footprint,” said Mayor Christy Holstege. “Palm Springs citizens are extremely passionate about conservation and I am confident we will all do our part to use water more efficiently and practice sustainability.”
Last year, residents from over 2,000 cities in all 50 states pledged to reduce their annual water use by over 1 billion gallons, reduce waste sent to landfills by 29 million pounds, and prevent hundreds of thousands of pounds of hazardous waste from entering our watersheds.
“We work with people and businesses to save water every day,” said DWA Board President Kristin Bloomer. “For those that sign a pledge and need help getting started, we’re here with incentives. It’s easy and it pays to save.”
To participate, residents go to mywaterpledge.com, and then fill out a pledge form to conserve water on behalf of the City of Palm Springs. It takes about a minute. The City will compete with others similar in size from across the nation. Cities with the highest percentage of residents who take the challenge have a chance to win $3,000 toward their utility bills, and hundreds more eco-friendly prizes.
In addition, this program allows cities to nominate a deserving charity from their city to receive a 2021 Toyota Highlander Hybrid. In Palm Springs, we have nominated United Way of the Desert (UWD), which helps manage a fund for those in need to pay water bills (www.unitedwayofthedesert.org/help2others).
“We’re honored to be the charity of choice for this campaign to save water,” said Kristal Granados, Executive Director of UWD. “Our work with local water agencies to help provide bill assistance is central to our mission.”
DWA in conjunction with the City of Palm Springs will also host a webinar at 10 a.m. on April 22 – Earth Day – to show people how to sign up for the pledge and how to save water with incentives. People can register for the webinar here: https://bit.ly/3sAOmxz
The 10th Anniversary National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation is presented by the Wyland Foundation and Toyota, with support from the U.S EPA WaterSense, The Toro Company, National League of Cities, Hobie Surf and Petal.
For more information on the Mayor's Challenge send e-mail to ashley@dwa.org or call 760-323-4971 ext. 184.