On Wednesday 22nd March, Aquaread will be joining many other charities, organisations, businesses and individuals in celebrating World Water Day – an annual event raising awareness and support for water conditions throughout the world, with the aim of tackling the water crisis.
For anyone who has not heard of World Water Day before, the day was first announced by the UN General Assembly in 1993 in order to help provide clean water for everyone in the world. Currently there are around 663 million people in the world who are forced to live without safe, easy access to clean water, but the Sustainable Development Goals, launched in 2015, include a target to ensure everyone has access to safe water by 2030.
Each year the organisers focus on a specific theme in order to highlight areas of the water industry that may need dramatic improvements, in order to achieve this goal.
Last years theme was water and jobs, and the theme of this year’s World Water Day is waste water.
Waste Water
The main focus of World Water Day this year is wastewater, and the campaign ‘Why waste water?’ is all about reducing and reusing wastewater.
Though there is a large disparity in the world over huge numbers of people being left without access to clean water, over 80% of the wastewater generated by society flows back into the ecosystem without being treated or reused globally.
This huge percentage of untreated wastewater not only leads to damage to the environment, but also means that we are missing an opportunity to gain a huge resource by treating water.
The future of wastewater misuse
As industrial urbanisation continues, it becomes more and more important to implement sustainable processes for wastewater collection and management.
At Aquaread, water monitoring is at the core of what we do, and we know that there are huge ramifications that can come from ignoring or failing to observe water quality. By letting large portions of water go untreated we are not only missing a valuable opportunity for recycling, which can have great societal benefits, but we are also opening the door for costly environmental damage.
Though struggling to find access to clean water, and the thought of not having clean water available on demand, may sound like an international problem, it is something which is likely to/and already is having a detrimental effect here in urban areas of the UK as well.
Last year we released an article on new data which predicted that in as little as 25 years, London could see massive droughts in the city. Wherever you look there are signs that point to the necessity of better wastewater management, both at home and abroad, and World Water Day is a great way of helping to raise awareness and support for this.
However you choose to spend your World Water Day, we hope you will help us to spread awareness for this important cause.