Written by Katherine Wang, Katie Finnegan, and Tessa Jahnke (Class of 2024), and Rachel Blythe (Class of 2022)

Every year on March 22, people around the world celebrate World Water Day by raising awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water. World Water Day is an annual United Nations observance day started in 1993, and this year’s theme is about valuing water and taking action to tackle the global water crisis.

In order to celebrate this important day, we came together to hold a week-long event in order to raise awareness about World Water Day. Throughout the week, we organized presentations and slideshows, conducted activities, and shared fun facts and interesting videos about water. On Monday, we created a slideshow introducing World Water Day and what it aimed to achieve, as well as sharing an introductory video about World Water Day 2021. On Tuesday, we sent everyone a link for a water calculator in order to determine how much water was used by each of the students each day and how it compared to the national average. On Wednesday, we sent out emails including a Bingo sheet that we created for World Water Day, and also coordinated a Pictionary game that compared the amount of water and resources required to produce food, water, and necessities like electricity. On Thursday, Tessa, Katherine, and Katie created a slideshow game to teach everyone how many liters of water are used for food. On Friday, the last day of the week-long event, we sent out an email with fun facts about water to show its true value and how we can better protect this vital resource. 

The 2023 Agenda for Sustainable Development was first adopted by the United Nations in 2015, and at the heart of the agenda are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These goals are a global call to all developing and developed countries to partner up to tackle poverty, empower women and girls, and protect the planet to improve the lives and prospects of everyone. What World Water Day strives to achieve is related to Goal 6 of the 17 SDGs, which is to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.” Although World Water Day dates back to 1993, the goal of ensuring water and sanitation services can be still applied today, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, when hand hygiene is essential to prevent the spread of the virus. According to the United Nations Statistics Division, as many as 3 billion people worldwide lack basic hand washing facilities at home. Thus, raising awareness about appreciating water and participating in events such as World Water Day can help to accelerate progress towards achieving Goal 6 of the SDGs.

Water is the lifeblood of our planet, and it’s impossible to survive without it. However, what many people don’t realize is that water is finite and irreplaceable. Therefore, it’s essential that we don’t waste it. We hope everyone learned about the importance of conserving water and discovered something interesting about water this week! Remember to be aware of your water usage and don’t waste it!