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Today is World Water Day

Maggie Brown, MS, ELS General

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).

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