Tuesday, March 21, 2017

World Water Day

By Joann M. Ringelstetter

World Water Day is a global awareness day that takes place every year on March 22. It was established in 1993 by the United Nations General Assembly to urge people around the globe to take action to solve the world water crisis. According to the United Nations, “today, there are over 663 million people living without a safe water supply close to home, spending countless hours queuing or trekking to distant sources, and coping with the health impacts of using contaminated water.”

Each year, a theme is designated, such as “Caring for our Water Resources is Everybody's Business,” “Everyone Lives Downstream,” “Coping With Water Scarcity,” and “Clean Water for a Healthy World.” This year’s theme is “Why Wastewater?”. The focus is on reducing and reusing wastewater. The United Nations website suggests that at home, “we can reuse greywater on our gardens and plots. In our cities, we can treat and reuse wastewater for green spaces. In industry and agriculture, we can treat and recycle discharge for things like cooling systems and irrigation.”


Water is essential for sustaining life, quenching our thirst, and protecting our health. It provides us with beauty, serenity, and so many ways of enjoying it. From lakes and rivers for boating and fishing to waterfalls and bubbling brooks for peace, serenity, and natural beauty, to artesian wells for clean, healthy drinking water, please don’t take water for granted. Do what you can to protect and preserve it, for water is life!


Happy World Water Day and Happy Shunpiking!
Joann

2 comments:

  1. I hope you had a Wonderful World Water Day! Thank You for mentioning it! :)

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  2. Thanks for this great reminder about our precious, limited natural resources. I think our mother was ahead of her time - she was all about conserving everything! From the time I was little, I can remember her talking about not wasting things like water, and about reusing or fixing things rather than throwing them out "because some day those dumps (aka landfills) are going to fill up".

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