This World Water Day, let’s dive deep into the value of drinking water
Since 1993, World Water Day on March 22 has increased public awareness of the water and sanitation crisis and motivated people to take action. It is about addressing the 2.2 billion people who lack access to clean water globally.
It is a UN holiday that UN-Water is in charge of organising. UN-Water makes the theme suggestion in advance. It corresponds with the yearly release of the UN World Water Development Report, which is done so on behalf of UN-Water by UNESCO.
Why is World Water Day celebrated?
People now need more water than ever. Because of excessive use, pollution, and climate change, the strain on water resources is rising. Droughts and heat waves are occurring more frequently and with increased severity. Sea level rise is a contributing factor to saltwater intrusion into coastal aquifers.
The goal of World Water Day is to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of water and sanitation for all by 2030.
Conflicts over water can also lead to collaboration. We must cooperate in order to improve the stewardship of all water resources, including the global groundwater supply. Although groundwater is hidden from view, we cannot allow it to be forgotten. Groundwater is our primary source of liquid freshwater because it is preserved in rocks and soil.
It ensures the sustainability of drinking water supplies, sanitation systems, farming, industry, and ecosystems. Nonetheless, 20% of the world's aquifers are overexploited.
We do not know how much of this valuable resource exists in many places. We must improve our exploration, monitoring, and analysis of groundwater resources to protect and better manage them and contribute to achieving the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).
Water is essential to everyone's life because it has enormous and complex value in our homes, food, culture, health, education, economics, and natural environment. However, due to inefficient consumption and pollution, billions of people are denied access to safe water, putting their lives in danger.
World Water Day, every year on March 22, World Water Day is a significant celebration meant to draw attention to the value of water and to the more than 2 billion people who lack access to clean water.
The key visions of World Water Day are to provide awareness of the issues elaborated below:
Water accessibility
World-wide access to safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, and proper hygiene resources reduces disease-related illness and death, improving health, poverty reduction, and socioeconomic development. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical need for universal access to safe water external icons, as frequent and proper handwashing with soap and water is one of the most effective COVID-19 prevention measures. Despite this, many people lack access to these necessities, putting them at risk of water, sanitation, and hygiene-related diseases (WASH).
Diarrheal and other water-borne diseases
Many diarrheal diseases, including typhoid fever and cholera, are spread by contaminated water and sanitation. Despite being uncommon, typhoid and cholera outbreaks continue to occur in low-resource countries. Each year, these diseases sicken millions of people and kill an estimated 257,400 people.
To prevent diarrheal diseases, protecting water sources and developing and maintaining water and sanitation systems that keep faeces out of the water, food, and environment is critical. People in areas where there is no reliable source of safe water frequently resort to using sources that are more likely to contain germs that cause diarrhoea.
In areas with extremely high rainfall and flooding, drinking water sources and ground crops may be contaminated, for example, when latrines overflow.
These were the significance of World Water Day. Now let’s shed some light on the importance of groundwater and its relation to mankind.
Importance of Groundwater
The production of food, livestock, and industrial crops uses about 70% of the world's groundwater, and about a third of the water used for crop irrigation is groundwater.
An essential source of water for people is groundwater. Up to 50% of the world's population receives all or a portion of their drinking water from groundwater, which also supplies 43% of the water used for irrigation.
By 2100, the estimated 8 billion people on Earth will have increased to 11 billion. The ability of humans to produce enough food without contaminating the soil, water, or climate will be a challenge. The biggest problem that humanity has ever faced has been described as this. The key to the problem is the management of groundwater sustainably. It is crucial to have a scientific understanding of groundwater management and the importance of water because, with careful use and replenishment, groundwater can help solve issues.
Earth's groundwater resources
Although it is submerged beneath the surface of the planet, groundwater contributes significantly to the water cycle and accounts for 99% of the planet's liquid fresh water. The groundwater reservoir feeds rivers, lakes, and wetlands when they are in need of water and takes some of their flow when surface water is abundant. These surface manifestations of groundwater include rivers, lakes, and wetlands.
Numerous features on the Earth's surface are also controlled by groundwater. Only drought-tolerant plants can live on dry hillsides, and water-tolerant plants live near streams, as a result, the depth of the water table plays a role in the different plant species that can be found along the slopes from hill to valley.
Groundwater is in jeopardy
Many of the world's major aquifers (groundwater reservoirs) are being depleted, according to modern scientific measurements. Such depletion can result in decreased stream flow, drying of springs or wetlands, loss of vegetation, drop in well water levels, and land subsidence. Another threat to groundwater is pollution caused by human activity, which produces chemicals and wastes that leak into the subsurface. Pollution degrades groundwater quality and endangers human and ecological health. As the human population grows, so will the demand for groundwater, a vast but finite resource. Understanding our groundwater systems and managing them thoughtfully within the constraints of the hydrologic cycle is more important than ever.
These are the importance of water we can’t ignore, so what can protect your family from contamination while saving this precious natural resource? The answer is Pureit’s Eco range of water purifiers. Take Pureit Eco Water Saver Mineral RO+UV+MF Water Purifier with 10L Storage, for example. Powered by the unique Eco Recovery Technology, this RO provides efficient purification while saving you a lot of water compared to other ROs. It reduces reject water to less than one glass for every glass of water purified, as opposed to other ROs, which waste up to 2.5 glasses for every drink purified. This can save up to 80 glasses per day. The Special Mineral Cartridge enriches water by introducing essential minerals such as calcium and magnesium, resulting in healthy, mineral-enriched water. So if you care about your health and mother nature, this water purifier and the range of Eco water purifiers is a must-check out for you to get the best water purifier for home.
Final Thoughts
As climate change worsens, groundwater reserves will be increasingly important in preserving our access to clean, drinkable water. We must ensure proper waste and chemical disposal, encourage large-scale aquifer recharge interventions, support awareness-raising campaigns like the Global Groundwater Sustainability Call to Action, and pressure state and central policymakers to add safeguards like the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act to protect groundwater and strengthen water governance.
