OK Baby Boomers, bet many of you once felt you had the monopoly on peace, love and understanding, bringing harmony to the world, dating all the way back to Earth Day and Woodstock. Well much has changed in 40 plus years, and we are rapidly coming up on a different kind of annual celebration that may still sound very familiar.
Slated each year for March 22nd for more than two decades, World Water Day is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro from the next generation. The UN General Assembly has since marked this day as an opportunity to bring global water issues to worldwide attention. It documents, diagnoses and details how water links us all to the future we want.
Never heard of World Water Day?
A quick Google search reveals numerous articles and videos championing the cause. The WWW we commonly know as websites and addresses is cleverly repositioned as the World Wide Well, where we understand that water flows through rivers and streams, just as it flows through each and every one of us. A bit of Mother Earth hyperbole to be sure, but observers of World Water Day are correct to point out that unsafe water kills more people than war, and more than 95% of available fresh water on the planet is polluted.
If you are new to the March 22nd observance, each year the United Nations brings renewed focus to the issues of the day from a different vantage point, raising and exploring different themes. Previous themes have included:
– The World is Thirsty Because We Are Hungry (2012)
– International Year of Water Cooperation (2013)
– Water and Energy (2014)
For 2015, it is Water and Sustainable Development. The theme is meant to bring to light the many uses of water in all its aspects:
As stated on the current www.unwater.org site, “Water is Health; Water is Nature; Water is Urbanization; Industry; Energy; Food; Equality, and so on. Humanity Needs Water, A drop of water is flexible. A drop of water is powerful. A drop of water is in demand. Water is at the core of sustainable development.”
Baby Boomers know these mantras very well. In a sense, they are ideals worthy of discussion, but perhaps more to the point, water is also a very real global problem like flood and drought. To the UN’s credit, these crises are not ignored. There are publications readily available from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Global Water Partnership (GWP) highlighted on the unwater.org website.