Submitted by Maria on Mon,03/29/2021

Blog by James Dalton -- Monday this week saw the 28th annual World Water Day. The Day celebrates water and raises awareness about the global water crisis, the theme this year was valuing water.

The value of water is not about economic price or financial worth. Instead, the theme aims to raise awareness about the myriad of connections we have with water, be it for social and economic use but also for our natural systems and cultural values. Not valuing something can lead to mismanagement, poor investment, externalities, and ultimately loss and failure.

In response to the UN’s High-Level conclusion in 2018 that the world was off-track to meet the sustainable development goal on water and sanitation (SDG6), a new High Level Panel on Water developed five principles to better recognise the value of water. Championed since by the Dutch Government’s Valuing Water Initiative, these principles should now form part of any water strategy, whether for water resource management, freshwater species protection, or water services and governance. 

Under the #Water2me initiative, UN Water asked people to submit what water means to them, crowdsourcing people’s perspectives and emotions about water. I have seen many of these submissions on social media. By far the majority are very personal, they reflect on people’s childhoods, times with family and friends, outings, activities, fun, spiritual, personal tales and emotions. I have not seen one that says ‘it’s my job'. It is of course, my job, but it is also much more. 

In my role I get to work with, and meet people obsessed with water, fully committed to their cause and that of their role with water. These are inspiring people working across a...Read more

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