Voice of the Danube
“Valuing Water” is the rallying cry of World Water Day 2021, a global online event on 22 March. To appreciate the value of water truly we need to look far beyond price tags. If we fail to grasp water's tremendous importance for households, food, culture, health, education, economics and the integrity of our natural environment, we risk mismanaging this finite, irreplaceable resource.
Beyond celebrating water as nature's most precious treasure, World Water Day aims at raising awareness of the creeping global water crisis. A core focus of World Water Day observance is to support the achievement of “water and sanitation for all by 2030” – an important no. six among the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
On World Water Day 2021, the United Nations will also release its World Water Development Report including latest facts & figures and appropriate policy recommendations for decision makers.
Providing facts, figures and recommendations on the regional level is the purpose of the Danube Water Security Diagnostic, a study that will launch later this spring. Supported financially by the Austrian Ministry of Finance via the Danube Water Program and the Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership (GWSP), this project deals with questions of regional and national water security in the Danube river basin.
The study will examine the demographic, economic, climate and technological changes that the region is currently undergoing, review the development towards integrated water resource management, and provide the very first comprehensive regional water security analysis. Thus, it will provide a factual basis for an informed and focused policy dialogue about ensuring a water secure future for the Danube region.
The IAWD and the World Bank in the frame of the Danube Water Program wish you a happy, informative and productive World Water Day 2021 and invite you to take a closer look at the resources below.
World Water Day 2021 | 22 MARCH WORLD WATER DAY
World Water Day, held on 22 March every year since 1993, celebrates water and raises awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water. It is about taking action to tackle the global water crisis and achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.
Working Together for A Water-Secure World for All
Today, our water is either too much, too little or too polluted. Floods and droughts are leading to water shortages, failed crops, power outages and stalled economies. Water pollution is wreaking havoc on people and the planet. And climate change is worsening pre-existing water stress conditions. To tackle the global water crisis we see, the World Bank sees A Water-Secure World for All. Together we are working to deliver this vision through three inter-related pillars.
