World Water Day 2023: History, significance, slogans, theme, water facts and more

World Water Day 2023: World Water Day is observed annually worldwide on March 22 to highlight the importance of fresh water on our planet Earth. This day is backed by the United Nations (UN) to advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. Every year the day is observed with a particular theme that is relevant to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). The WASH initiative is also in line with the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 6 as established by the UN. Around this day, the UN World Water Development Report is also released every year, which provides an authoritative and comprehensive assessment of the world’s freshwater resources.

World Water Day 2023: Significance

UN-Water, an interagency mechanism that coordinates with the UN, is the convener for World Water Day and is responsible for selecting the theme every year. Last year, the theme was ‘Valuing Water’ and a public campaign was launched to invite people to join a global conversation on social media sharing their stories related to water. Take a look at some of the previous year’s themes:

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2020: Water and Climate Change

2019: Leaving no one Behind

2018: Nature for Water

2017: Why waste water?

Apart from starting conversations around freshwater and its availability around the world, the day also includes campaigns to raise money for water projects. The first World Water Day was celebrated in 1993. The intention was to inspire people around the world and create awareness among the masses about water-related issues. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an additional focus on hand washing and hygiene.

Other relevant issues like water scarcity, water pollution, inadequate water supply, lack of sanitation, and the impacts of climate change on water resources are also moot points.

World Water Day 2023: Theme

The theme for this year’s World Water Day is ‘Accelerating the change to solve the water and sanitation crises’ with an emphasis on the necessity of taking stern action to address the global water crises. The UN said, “Billions of people and countless schools, businesses, healthcare centres, farms and factories don’t have the safe water and toilets they need.

There is an urgent need to accelerate change – to go beyond business as usual".The UN is also kickstarting the UN 2023 Water Conference- the first event of its kind for nearly 50- to unite the world around water from March 22-24 in New York, United States.

World Water Day 2023: Slogans and quotes

1. ‘Water is the driving force of all nature’- Leonardo da Vinci

2. ‘The earth, the air, the land, and the water are not an inheritance from our forefathers but on loan from our children. So, we have to handover to them at least as it was handed over to us.’- Mahatma Gandhi

3. ‘When the well is dry, we learn the worth of water'- Benjamin Franklin

4. ‘Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it’- Lao Tzu

5. ‘In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans’- Khalil Gibran

6. ‘Thousands have lived without love, not one without water’- W.H. Auden

7. ‘We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one’- Jacques Yves Cousteau

8. ‘If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water’- Loren Eiseley

9. ‘No water, no life. No blue, no green’- Sylvia Earle

10. ‘ A drop of water, if it could write out its own history, would explain the universe to us’- Lucy Larcom

World Water Day 2023: Some facts related to water

1.96.5 per cent of the water on Earth is in our oceans, which cover 71 per cent of the surface of our planet.

2.Out of all the water present on Earth, only 3.5 per cent of water is fresh and fresh water is not present in our lakes, rivers, and streams but in ice and glaciers!

3. Millions of bacteria and viruses can live in only a single drop of water. A drop of water can even have fish eggs, baby crabs, plankton, or even small worms.

4. Comets that we see up in the sky are mostly made up of water and ice.

5.A newborn baby is 78 per cent water. Adults are 55-60 per cent water. It is also a big part of the blood that helps in bringing nutrients to all our body cells.

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