Today is World Water Day
Maggie Brown, MS, ELS is Senior Production Editor at PLoS
“Four of every ten people in the world do not have access to even a simple pit latrine; and nearly two in ten have no source of safe drinking water” – UN Water for Life Decade.
In recognition of the central role of water in human health and well-being, in 1992 the UN General Assembly declared March 22 of every year World Water Day. This annual event has included such varied themes as Women & Water (1995), Water for the 21st Century (2000), and Sanitation (2008). The 2005 theme was Water for Life 2005-2015, initiating the Water for Life Decade .
This year, the theme is Water Quality: Clean Water for a Healthy World, focusing on water quality, ecosystem health, and human well-being. The High-Level Interactive Dialogue on Water, hosted by the UN, will assess progress on the Water for Life Decade goals. For a listing of other events being held around the world, see http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/events.html. See the WHO World Water Day web site for more information as well.
If you’re interested in reading more about water as a health issue, please check out our previous posts on Water and sanitation, water in humanitarian crises, whether water should be a human right, and problems implementing solar drinking water disinfection (SODIS).