The UN General Assembly designated March 22 as World Water Day in 1992, and it has been observed every year since 1993 to draw attention to the importance of fresh water, particularly for the nearly one billion people without access to clean drinking water and the 2.5 billion without proper sanitation.

Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of fresh water. This year the theme is on the importance of sharing transboundary waters. In the past three years, the focus has been on sanitation, coping with water scarcity, and water and culture.

The annual day of observance and action is still relatively unknown, but it's gaining more awareness with each year through the efforts of the United Nations, non-governmental organizations and concerned individuals.

Sharing waters, sharing opportunities

This year, the theme for World Water Day is sharing water resources with the focus on transboundary waters. According to the UN, 145 countries physically share their lake and river basins that cover nearly half of the earth's land surface. In the last 60 years, there have been more than 200 international water agreements and 37 cases of reported violence between states over water.

"We need to continue to nurture the opportunities for co-operation that transboundary water management can provide," according to the UN's World Water Day website. "We share the responsibility for managing the world's transboundary waters for current and future generations."

World Water Forum

The president of the UN General Assembly has been critical of the weeklong World Water Forum in Istanbul, where 23,000 delegates, including government ministers and business people from 192 countries, are discussing global water concerns until March 22. Earlier this week, both Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann and his senior adviser on water, Canadian Maude Barlow, questioned the legitimacy of the forum itself.

"The forum's orientation is profoundly influenced by private water companies. This is evident by the fact that both the president of the World Water Council and the alternate president are deeply involved with provision of private, for-profit, water services," said Barlow, in a speech delivered March 19 on behalf of Brockmann to the People's Water Forum, a counter-forum to the one in Istanbul.

Both also criticized the forum's draft ministerial declaration, which views water as a human need rather than a human right.

"As it stands, this important statement undermines the efforts of those who are struggling for access to clean water and sanitation," said Barlow, who is also the national chairperson of the Ottawa-based citizens' advocacy group, Council of Canadians.

Celebrations held on March 22

To mark World Water Day, there are many events taking place on March 22 around the world, including North America and Europe. The UN has created an interactive map outlining the planned benefits, marches, celebrations and awareness programs occurring that day.

A number of them will be held in Canadian cities, including Calgary, Quebec City and Ottawa. In Ottawa, members of the Sanitation & Water Action Network Canada will bring 40 toilet seats and lids to the steps of Parliament as part of their campaign to urge the government to make water and sanitation a foreign aid priority, SWAN Canada co-ordinator George Yap says.

The coalition estimates that the Canadian International Development Agency allocated less than 2.5 per cent, or about $70 million, of its annual budget for water sanitation and would like to see the percentage increased to about five per cent, Yap says.

Such actions by governments could help the UN meet its Millennium Development Goals, which includes halving by 2015 the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.