This year’s theme is ‘Water for Peace’, which focuses on the critical role water plays in the stability and prosperity of the world.
When water is scarce or polluted, or when people have unequal or no access, tensions can rise between communities and countries.
More than 3 billion people worldwide depend on water that crosses national borders. Yet, out of 153 countries that share rivers, lakes and aquifers with their neighbours, only 24 countries report having cooperation agreements for all their shared water.
As climate change impacts increase, and the global population grows, we must unite around protecting and conserving our most precious resource.
By working together to balance everyone’s human rights and needs, water can be a stabilizing force and a catalyst for sustainable development.
History of Water Day
It is an extremely sad but true fact: across the world there are 783 million people who still do not have access to clean water. While over 2.5 million people from across the globe still lack access to adequate sanitation facilities. This concerning lack of accessible options for meeting these two basic human needs is a tragedy that people from across the globe are looking to reduce and manage, bringing clean water and better sanitation facilities to underprivileged communities across the world.
The first Water Day was proposed in Agenda 22 of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development that was held in Rio de Janeiro. In December of that year, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution that on the 22nd of March each year, Water Day would be held; a day dedicated to raising awareness around global water-related issues, with the key focus being on ensuring every community has access to a clean water supply. In March 1993, the first Water Day was held, and has been held every year since then.
It’s from this need for clean water and adequate sanitation facilities for all, that Water Day was born.
- sources: https://www.daysoftheyear.com/ ; https://www.unwater.org/news/‘water-peace’-world-water-day-2024-campaign-launches
