What is World Water Day?

 Today, March 22 is World Water Day, a date that seeks to raise awareness about the importance of the preservation and sustainability of this resource. Since its origin in 1992, this date has been an opportunity to promote policies and practices focused on water conservation and its responsible use.

This year, the Water 2023 Conference is the first summit of its kind to be held since 1977 and will bring together hundreds of volunteers who have already been announced or will be announced in the coming days. The meeting takes place in New York between Wednesday and Friday with several plenary sessions and dialogues on specific issues, but in parallel some 550 events will be held both inside and outside the UN premises.

This summit comes at a time when the UN considers a “global crisis” in water, with billions of people without adequate access to water and more than 800,000 deaths annually attributed to diseases directly linked to contaminated water, sanitation problems or poor hygiene practices.

The 2023 Water Conference aims to seek solutions to the global water crisis and outline water plans for the coming decades. Governments, companies, investors and civil society will meet at the United Nations to seek answers to this crisis and rethink the best way to distribute and value water. One of the main issues to be addressed at the summit is the impact of the climate crisis on water and vice versa.

On the other hand, the UN points out that both floods and droughts have increased due to climate change, with an increase of 134% since 2000 in water-related disasters as a whole. At the same time, the organization stresses that water can be a key element in the fight against global warming, for example, with the development of more sustainable agricultural practices or with the protection of wetlands, which help to absorb carbon dioxide. At this summit, voluntary commitments are expected to be presented by governments, international organizations and the private sector.

Currently, the United Nations has received 360 pledges and many more are expected to be submitted during the three-day conference. In short, the 2023 Water Conference is an opportunity to seek solutions to the global water crisis and to map out water plans for the coming decades. The impact of the climate crisis on water and vice versa will be one of the main topics to be discussed, and it is expected that governments, international organizations and the private sector will present voluntary commitments to seek solutions to this problem. On World Water Day, it is important to remember the importance of preserving and caring for this vital resource for life on our planet.

In conclusion, water protection is an issue of global interest that should be considered by all governments to ensure water and food security in the future.