Today is World Water Day!
Not really sure what a proper celebration for world water is, but I would assume beer could be involved.
The first world water day was designated on March 22, 1993 as a day for bringing attention to the importance of sustainable management of freshwater resources.
The 2011 theme is "Water for Cities: Responding to the Urban Challenge". The theme is meant to bring attention to water issues facing the planets ever expanding urban areas.
Having grown up in the Great Lakes region I never really had an appreciation for how scarce water could be. The lakes are huge water bodies that seem as though they could never be tapped out. It wasn't until my senior year of high school when I wrote a paper about water conservation that I began to realize just how scarce water could be. This realization was further hammered home when I moved to North Carolina. I moved here after the serious droughts that struck the southeast a few years ago, but I can understand how freshwater could run low here.
Because I can't leave fish out of this post completely I will say that while it is important to conserve water for human use, it is also important to conserve water resources for the animals that call water home. It goes without saying that water is pretty important to fish (duh!), and when we pollute or waste water not only are we hurting a resource that we need, but a resource fish rely on. By protecting water resources for ourselves we protect fish habitat, kind of like killing two birds with one stone.
In honor of world water day I am thinking of what I can do to help protect water resources, along with enjoying them by doing some fishing.