Ritu Singh
World Water Day is a United Nations initiative to celebrate clean water and bring attention to those who don’t have enough of it. It's also a day to understand the valuable significance of water, discuss and conserve this finite resource in the future. It's important to remember that a drop of water is powerful and life giving.
Observed on 22 March every year, World Water Day is an event to celebrate the precious resource, water and raise awareness about water related issues. This year, the theme is "Water and Sustainable Development", which provides an important opportunity to highlight water's role in the sustainable development agenda.
HAPPY WORLD WATER DAY! #WorldWaterDay is marked on 22 March every year. It’s a day celebrate water. It’s a day to... http://t.co/bvSU1PtFOm
— UNW World Water Day (@UNW_WWD) March 22, 2015
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on this occasion said, "To address the many challenges related to water, we must work in a spirit of urgent cooperation, open to new ideas and innovation, and prepared to share the solutions that we all need for a sustainable future."
History of World Water Day:
United Nations General Assembly designated 22 March as the first World Water Day in 1993. Ever since then, every year the spotlight is put on a particular water related issue.
The day was first formally proposed in Agenda 21 of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The truth about Water crisis:
According to a report by United Nations World Water Assessment Program, at current usage rates, the world will have 40% less fresh water than it needs in 15 years. Increased urbanisation, uncontrolled population growth are the major factors contributing to water shortage and crisis. The global population is expected to grow to 9.1 billion people by 2050, up from the current 7.2 billion and with that water demand will grow at a drastic rate.
Here are a few facts and figures about water crisis:
- 750 million people around the world lack access to safe water; approximately one in nine people.
- More than twice the population of the United States lives without access to safe water.
- There are 658 million people living without access to water in Africa.
- Diarrhea caused by inadequate drinking water, sanitation, and hand hygiene kills an estimated 842,000 people every year globally, or approximately 2,300 people per day.1
- 82% of those who lack access to improved water live in rural areas, while just 18% live in urban areas.
- Nearly 1 out of every 5 deaths under the age of 5 worldwide is due to a water-related disease.
