Happy World Water Day!

A day full of activities dedicated to raise awareness to water issues. Since 1993, UN World Water Day has been held annually to highlight the importance of sustainable management of the world's freshwater resources, and the water related challenges we face globally. Today, we celebrate the 20th World Water Day since its inception, with focus on Water Cooperation.

Water cooperation World Water Week

Events and activities are taking place all over the world to raise awareness and celebrate the progress made to date. Take a look at UN’s Event Map to see which World Water Day activities are going on near you. SIWI is celebrating the World Water Day by hosting a seminar on Water Cooperation here in Stockholm (watch live stream from the seminar here).

With a world population expected to have grown to over 9 billion people by 2050, all depending on the same finite and vulnerable water resource as today, our inter-dependence is growing every day. We all need to cooperate to ensure a future where water is used wisely. Why not start immediately? There are many ways to implement a more water wise lifestyle, here’s a few tips.

3 ways to become more water wise

Be careful what you put down the drain
To safeguard we all have access to clean water, we need to be cautious what we put down our drains, toilets and sinks. When rubbish, oil, household cleaning chemicals or fertilisers end up in the street gutters, they flow into the storm water system, which seriously damages the water quality of our oceans, rivers and streams. Think twice what you flush, and help keeping our water clean!
Think about your water footprint
The greatest amount of the water you consume, you cannot see directly. Only five per cent of the water we consume runs through toilets, taps, and garden hoses at home. Instead, nearly 95 per cent of the water you consume is hidden in the food you eat, energy you use, products you buy, and services you rely on. Your ‘water footprint’ means the volume of freshwater that is used to produce food or other goods and services you consume. By reducing your water footprint, you can help saving million litres of water. Calculate your own water footprint here.
Eat your food!
Between one-third and one-half of the world’s produced food is being lost early on in the supply chain segments or wasted at the consumer-end, amounting to about 1.3 billion tons of food waste per year globally. There is a great opportunity to save water by actually eating the food we grow. Addressing food losses and waste is the simplest and most direct route to reducing pressure on water resources. Don’t buy more food than you need, and finish what you have in your fridge, and you can help save water.