World Water Day, recognised annually on 22 March around the world, recognises the international need for people to take action in order to preserve our most precious natural resource – water! It is a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocates for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. Each year World Water Day has a specific theme and this year’s theme is Wastewater: the Untapped Resource. The theme is introduced with an appropriate question: Why Waste Water? – a clever play on words to emphasise the potential for reuse of our wastewater.
To get your attention, some scary statistics include:
- Internationally 1 in 10 people lack access to safe water and 1 in 3 people lack access to a toilet. This has resulted in:
– one child dies from a water-related disease every 21 seconds
– Diarrhoea, a preventable disease, is the second biggest killer of children worldwide
- In Africa, there are 332 million people without access to water
World Water Day is a day to pause and acknowledge the global water crisis, then take steps to act! Instead of wasting wastewater, we need to reduce the quantity of waste and reuse water wherever possible. This will reduce the quantity of fresh water consumed, so there is more of it where it is needed.
Doing our bit
Not only for World Water Day, but as an ongoing exercise, JoJo Tanks aims to actively contribute to the well-being of our country’s citizens with regards to water source, storage and reuse.
The sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations, launched in 2015, include a target to ensure everyone has access to safe water by 2030. Help us to help others, conserve and reuse water wherever you can.
