World Water Day 2024: Theme, key facts, history, significance, other important things to know about this special day

World Water Day 2024, World Water Day 2024 Theme: The World Water Day is celebrated on March 22 every year since 1993, an annual United Nations observance focusing on the importance of freshwater. The day, dedicated to emphasising the importance of water, is meant to raise awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water worldwide, according to the United Nations UN) website, un.org.

World Water Day 2024 Theme

The theme of World Water Day 2024 is ‘water for peace’.

World Water Day: What happens on World Water Day?

People and organisations participate around the globe in the campaigns on this day, hosting World Water Day events and promoting the theme through communications, advocacy, and social media.

World Water Day 2024 History

The United Nations (UN) designated March 22 as World Water Day in 1993, following the recommendation made in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED).

World Water Day Key Facts

Here are some of the key factors, according to the UN website:

• 2.2 billion still live without safely managed drinking water, including 115 million people who drink surface water 
• Roughly half of the world’s population is experiencing severe water scarcity for at least part of the year 
• Water-related disasters have dominated the list of disasters over the past 50 years and account for 70 per cent of all deaths related to natural disasters 
• Transboundary waters account for 60 per cent of the world’s freshwater flows, and 153 countries have territory within at least 1 of the 310 transboundary river and lake basins and inventoried 468 transboundary aquifer systems 
• Only 24 countries report that all their transboundary basins are covered by cooperation arrangements