March 23, 2020

Andrew Campbell 

March 22 is an international observance day designated by the UN as World Water Day to encourage the world in supplying people with clean water for drinking and hygiene. Following the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to declare March 22 of each year as World Day for Water in 1993. On 2020 World Water Day, the UN released a flagship report on the use and reuse of the Earth’s limited water resources.

The World Water Development Report 2020 - Water and Climate Change, compiled by UN-Water in collaboration with the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), aims at helping the water community to tackle climate change and showing the climate change community about improved water management in terms of adaptation and mitigation.

According to the UN report, more than 2 billion people are living in the risk of reduced sustainable access to freshwater resources now. By 2050, at least one-fourth of the world’s population will live in a region affected by persisting or recurring shortages of freshwater.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General António Guterres spoke on World Water Day and urged all stakeholders to increase climate action and invest in robust adaptation measures for water sustainability. Thus, Mr. Guterres stated such efforts would make the world in a much better position to manage and solve the water crisis.

Photo:Webshot.