World Water Day 2023: Small changes lead to big differences

The UN 2023 Water Conference, which takes place from March 22-24 in New York, will focus on encouraging and supporting countries to achieve water-related goals and targets approved internationally for the 2018-28 period.

“Accelerate Change” is the theme of the World Water Day 2023, which will be observed on March 22, aiming to encourage people to make a difference by changing the way they use, consume and manage water.

Spreading the message of the World Water Day 2023 on Twitter, UN Secretary-General António Guterres wrote that the world is woefully off-course to achieve the goal of water and sanitation for all by 2030. Billions of people still don’t have safe water and toilets, he noted, calling on all people to do something to accelerate change.

The UN 2023 Water Conference, which takes place from March 22-24 in New York, will focus on encouraging and supporting countries to achieve water-related goals and targets approved internationally for the 2018-28 period.

The event comprises opening and closing sessions, along with six plenary and five interactive dialogue sessions as well as sideline activities. The results of the conference will be summarised in a report that will be delivered by the President of UN General Assembly at the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in 2023.

At the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the “Earth Summit”, which was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 3-14 June 1992, participants adopted a resolution taking March 22 as the World Water Day. The day has been observed annually since 1993.

Its main target is to direct people around the world to save and protect water resources, raising people’s awareness of the value of water in people's daily lives as well as protect water resources and the precious habitat of many species of living things living together on the Earth.

Every year, the UN selects a specific theme for the World Water Day to reflect different aspects of water. This international event looks to draw attention from people around the world to the importance of water resources, especially freshwater, and help enhance the sustainable management of these valuable resources.

In respond to the World Water Day, each year, countries will take specific actions. In Việt Nam, along with spreading the message of the day through banners and posters, many conferences and seminars have been held in the process of water use and management. Water-saving campaigns on the national scale have also been built and implemented.

The current water and sanitation crisis is a huge threat and risk in human life. Meanwhile, the population is growing, agriculture and industry are using more and more water, and climate change is getting worse.

According to the USAID, globally, 785 million people do not have access to a basic drinking-water service. And even for those who have access to water - the very resource on which a healthy, productive life depends - services are often inadequate to meet basic needs. Across sub-Saharan Africa, 30-50 per cent of the rural systems are non-functional within five years of being built, and utilities in urban areas often ration water servicing.

Economically-used and well-managed water resources will become a lever for a green economy, helping restore the climate and contributing to an inclusive sustainable world.