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The Water-related challenges we face today are immense.
World Water Day is celebrated on 22nd of March annually. It is celebrated to spread awareness of water, its importance in our daily life, how one can save water and drink clean water for healthy living. August is Water Quality Month.World Water Day is an international observance and an opportunity to learn more about water-related issues, be inspired to tell others and take action to make a difference. World Water Day dates back to the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development where an international observance for water was recommended. The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating March 22, 1993 as the first World Water Day. It has been held annually since then.
But why is it so important to take a day to recognize water? What does it really mean to celebrate World Water Day?
To better understand these questions, we first have to better understand water and the vital role it plays in our daily lives. Now, it’s one thing to say, “of course we know how crucial water is in our lives, we need to drink it to stay alive,” but to do so is to potentially overlook all the ways that water has a role in nearly everything we do.
In 2016, the UN declared the official theme for World Water Day to be “Water and Jobs.” The reason they did so was to underscore the fact that almost half of the world’s workers – 1.5 billion people – work in water-related sectors and to highlight how access to safe and clean water can lead to a stronger economy and increase sustainable development.
In this sense, “celebrating” World Water Day is really about taking the time to appreciate the role water plays in our day-to-day, beyond simply quenching our thirst. You might actually be surprised by how much water you use in a given day.
It is estimated that in highly developed countries, the average person uses between 100 and 250 litres of clean and safe water per day for things like drinking, cooking, flushing toilets, doing laundry, bathing, cleaning, watering the garden, and more. That’s more than 10 times as much water being used per day than in some underdeveloped countries. And that’s before factoring in agricultural and industrial usage.
While we may be conscious of our water consumption, and in turn make responsible choices to help conserve water – like turning the faucet off while we brush our teeth, taking shorter showers, and investing in water-efficient appliances – we rarely take the time to truly appreciate how much water factors into so many elements of our day-to-day lives.
World Water Day is a great time to be conscious of how much water we use every day, and recognize how fortunate we are to have it at our disposal. And, in turn, be conscious of how access to clean and safe water positively affects our lives, our economies, and our societies.
Because for one in every nine people around the world, basic water usage simply doesn’t factor into their day-to-day activities and they are limited to non-existent access to safe and clean water affects their lives negatively, limiting economic opportunities and greatly increasing health risks.
So as you mark World Water Day every year, you can do so by recognizing the vital – and largely underappreciated – role water has in our lives, and reflect on how important it is that we continue to work to ensure that someday everyone is able to take advantage of this important resource in the same ways we enjoy today.
Here are some of the favourite slogans for saving water:
Conserve water, conserve life.
You never know the worth of water until the well runs dry.
Save water, and it will save you.
Don’t let life slip down the drain.
How many drops make up an ocean? Conserve water; every drop counts.
Don’t flush our planet’s most valuable resource.
It takes a lot of blues to stay green.
If we don’t learn to conserve, we’ll all be fish out of water.
Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink.
A drop of water is worth more than a sack of gold to a thirsty man.
Water Smarter!
