Surprise Mayor Kevin Sartor has proclaimed April as Water Awareness Month.

As part of the increased focus on preserving this vital resource, Sartor also signed on for Surprise to participate in the Wyland National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation.

This is the sixth year Surprise has joined cities across the country in asking residents to take part in this annual pledge to use water more efficiently, reduce pollution and save energy.

During this challenge, the cities with the highest percentage of residents who take the pledge in their population category win.

Visit mywaterpledge.com and select from a list of ways to help conserve water. Those who participated in years past an participate by simply renewing the pledge.

This year, the challenge has introduced a new Water Footprint Calculator on the webpage. Participants can use it to learn about their personal and household water use and find new ways to easily conserve water.

It is simple to participate and just as easy to enter to win $50,000 in eco-friendly prizes, including $3,000 towards a home’s utility bills, irrigation smart controllers, home improvement gift cards and more. Additionally, one school in each winning city will receive 100 pairs of special blue light eyeglasses crafted from recycled plastics.

To participate, residents must take the pledge by Wednesday, April 30.

The Wyland National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation is designed to save money for consumers, save infrastructure and operating costs for cities, promote drought resiliency and protect watersheds and ecosystems.

Through the lifetime of this challenge, residents from almost 2,300 cities across the U.S. have pledged to save more than 1.8 billion gallons of water. These pledges also meant reducing waste sent to landfills by 35 million pounds, including recycling three million water bottles.

To learn about other Surprise water conservation programs and resources, visit surpriseaz.gov/WaterConservation.