The Environmental Service Avenue of the Rotaract Club of University of Sri Jayewardenepura, with immense pride, has launched its inaugural Article Series to acknowledge prominent days pertaining to the environment.
The fourth step of the article series will most prominently showcase particulars concerning The World Water Day 2021: Valuing Water
Initiating measures to tackle The Water Crisis should not be framed onto a specific date, although we commemorate the 22nd March of each year, to be recognized as the World Water Day.
With a celebrated existence of twenty-eight (28) years, the theme for this year’s World Water Day will be focused towards “Valuing Water” where the bedrock of the prominence will be extended to areas to include the Environmental, Social and Cultural value people place on water as well.
The WHAT of World Water Day
Water means different things to different people. The World Water Day 2021 celebrates water and raises awareness of the global water crisis, and a core focus of the observance is to support the attainment of The Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6): Water and Sanitization for all by 2030
The HOW of World Water Day
The UN-Water team has made plans to conduct this year’s celebration as a virtual event to emphasize the importance of water apart from its price – water has massive and complex value for households, food, culture, health, education, economics and the integrity of our natural environment.
The WHY of World Water Day
Currently, water is under extreme threat from growing population, increasing demands of agriculture and industry as well as the adverse impacts of climate change. The World Water Day 2021 is aimed to address these affairs and value water and safeguard it effectively, efficiently and sustainably.
Do Sri Lankans undergo water crisis?
YES. As per Disaster Management Centre, over 337,000 people across eight (8) districts out of the twenty-five are facing water crisis due to the dry spell and seawater intrusion into surface water. Kalutara, Ratnapura and Kegalle districts are the most adversely affected.
To address this issue The Asian Development Bank initiated a project in 2017 which is expected to be completed by 2024, to divert untapped water from The Mahaweli River to feed tanks and reservoirs in the Northern Dry Zone to facilitate local farmers to plant two crops instead of one.
Initiative measures taken so far….
The United Nations Water coordinates the efforts of UN entities and international organizations working on water and sanitization issues. Recent milestones are:
- 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
- 2015-2030 Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction
- 2016 Paris Agreement on Climate Change
UNESCO contributes to the observance of World Water Day within the activities of its International Hydrological Program (IHP) to build the scientific knowledge base to help countries manage their water resources sustainably.
Having a read on this article and the food for thought, I, as the writer, suggest to the world out there to commence Valuing Water and preserve it for the generations to come as sustainability is crucial for continuous growth and improvement of humankind, not forgetting that
By Rtr. Eesha Madugalle
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