World Water Day (awesome pics)

by purplesofa 5 Replies latest social current

• 

  purplesofa

  With everything going on With the Heathcare Reform Bill passing, I still wanted to remember and remind us that

  there are over a billion people all over the world without clean water for drinking, bathing and washing.

  We have our problems, but we are very fortunate to have clean water available to us here in the US.

  So, please take a moment to be thankful for what we do have and if ever you can help with giving

  lifesaving water to another please do.

  There are many sites online, just take a look.

  purps

  http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/about.html

  International World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating 22 March 1993 as the first World Water Day. Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater. On this page, we present a brief overview of the different themes that have been the focus of World Water Day celebrations. View World Water Day 2009 poster Visit the World Water Day 2009 web site Visit the World Water Day 2008 web site View World Water Day 2007 poster Visit the World Water Day 2007 web site The Theme of World Water Day 2006 was Water and Culture under the leadership of UNESCO. The United Nations General Assembly at its 58th session in December 2003 agreed to proclaim the years 2005 to 2015 as the International Decade for Action, "Water for Life", and beginning with World Water Day, March 22, 2005. The Water for Life decade set the world’s goals on “a greater focus on water-related issues, while striving to ensure the participation of women in water-related development efforts, and further cooperation at all levels to achieve water-related goals of the Millennium Declaration, Johannesburg Plan of Implementation of the World Summit for Sustainable Development and Agenda 21.” The UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and the World Meteorological Organization were charged with co-ordinating events for World Water Day 2004. The message of the Day was: Weather, climate and water resources can have a devastating impact on socio-economic development and on the well-being of humankind. According to the World Meteorological Organization weather and climate-related extreme events, such as tornadoes, thunderstorms, storms, cyclones, floods and drought, account for nearly 75 per cent of all disasters. They lead to an enormous toll of human suffering, loss of life and economic damage. Monitoring these events, predicting their movements and issuing timely warnings are essential to mitigate the disastrous impact of such events on population and economy. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was the the lead UN agency for World Water Day 2003. The goal was to inspire political and community action and encourage greater global understanding of the need for more responsible water use and conservation. Water for Development was the theme for 2002. The Internation Atomic Energy Agency was the coordinating UN agency. The currectly poor and deteriorating state of water resources in many parts of the world demand integrated water resources planning and management. Water for Health - Taking Charge was the theme for 2001. The WHO was the coordinating UN agency. The message for the day was: "Concrete efforts are necessary to provide clean drinking water and improve health as well as to increase awareness world-wide of the problems and of the solutions. 22 March is a unique occasion to remind everybody that solutions are possible. Use the resources on this site to help turn words into political commitment and action.” "The availability and quality of water is increasingly under strain. Even if conditions were to remain constant for the foreseeable future, much of the world would find itself in a state of water-related crisis. To make matters worse, populations are growing most rapidly in those areas where water is already in scarce supply”. This is how Wim Kok, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, starts his welcome words in the second announcement for the Second World Water Forum and Ministerial Conference that began in the Netherlands in the week prior to 22 March 2000. From 17–22 March 2000, hundreds of water specialists, politicians, leading experts and top officials from all across the globe convened in The Hague. The event marked the conclusion to a long series of sessions during which thousands of concerned citizens addressed the water crisis that threatens us all. Excessive flooding of major rivers in the world in 1998 have resulted in thousands of deaths and caused enormous damage in China, Bangladesh, and India, where nearly half of the world population lives. They were not only the result of excessive rains, but also of interference by mankind in the river basins. These tragedies make us realize that virtually everybody in this world lives downstream. UNEP was the coordinating UN agency. The sixth annual World Water Day (WWD) was celebrated on 22 March 1998. As per the recommendations of the 17th meeting of the ACC Sub-Committee on Water Resources, UNICEF and the United Nations Division of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), took the lead in organizing the observance of World Water Day in 1998. The message of the day was: Water is a basic requirement for all life, yet water resources are facing more and more demands from, and competition among, users. The 3rd annual World Water Day was celebrated on March 22, 1996, with the theme, Water for Thirsty Cities. It emphasized the growing water crisis faced by cities across the world which threatens the sustainability of their social and economic development. For the first time Lesotho celebrated the "World Day for Water", on March 22, 1995. The international theme for the day was 'Women and Water'. The Department of Water Affairs organized two main activities for the celebration of the Day: on water pollution and on environmental degradation. The Theme of World Water Day 1994 was 'Caring for Our Water Resources is Everyone's Business'
• 

  purplesofa

  World Water Day

  Today, March 22nd, is recognized by the United Nations Water Group as "World Water Day", this year's theme being "Clean Water for a Healthy World". Although we live on a water-covered planet, only 1% of the world's water is available for human use, the rest locked away in oceans, ice, and the atmosphere. The National Geographic Society feels so strongly about the issues around fresh water that they are distributing an interactive version of their April, 2010 magazine for download - free until April 2nd - and will be exhibiting images from the series at theAnnenberg Space for photography. National Geographic was also kind enough to share 15 of their images below, in a collection with other photos from news agencies and NASA - all of water, here at home - Earth. (43 photos total)
  The Maya believed natural wells, such as the Xkeken cenote in Mexico's Yucatan, led to the underworld. (John Stanmeyer, VII, © National Geographic)
  2 A cross hewn for Epiphany in the ice of Maine's Kennebec River by parishioners of St. Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Church commemorates the baptism of Christ. The water from the carving will bless the church. (John Stanmeyer, VII, © National Geographic) #
  3 India's holiest river, the Ganges, is scribbled with light from floating oil lamps during the Ganga Dussehra festival in Haridwar. Hindus near death often bathe in the river; some are later cremated beside it and have their ashes scattered on its waters. (John Stanmeyer, VII, © National Geographic) #
  4 Jared Otieno, a worker with the Kenyan Ministry of environment and mineral resources, sprinkles water cupped in his hand as he and other workers who helped clean two-and-a-half miles of the Nairobi river basin in Nairobi greet foreign United Nations visitors to the river basin site on March 21, 2010. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images) #
  5 A photograph of sunlight reflected by waterways across the central United States, as seen from the International Space Station in November of 2003. The scene looks southwest from above Lake Michigan across the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, towards Texas near the horizon. At least two of the smaller lakes at bottom, near the Illinois River, are cooling ponds for nuclear power stations. (NASA/JSC) #
  6 Floating on dreams and whispers, girls from a West Bank village cool off in the salt-laden waters of the Dead Sea. With its main tributary, the Jordan, at less than a tenth of its former volume, the inland sea has dropped some 70 feet since 1978. (Paolo Pellegrin, Magnum © National Geographic) #
  7 After six years of drought, measuring sticks are useless at the Ziglab Dam in Jordan, built to catch water flowing west into the Jordan River for irrigation. Its reservoir has shrunk to a fifth of capacity and hasn't filled since 2003, forcing Jordan to ration water. (Paolo Pellegrin, Magnum © National Geographic) #
  8 A man swims in a pool inside a condominium in Singapore March 21, 2010. (REUTERS/Nicky Loh) #
  9 A boy swims in the murky waters of Manila Bay March 21, 2010. (REUTERS/Cheryl Ravelo) #
  10 Mount Everest's East Rongbuk Glacier has lost some 350 vertical feet of ice between August 1921 and October 2008. (David Breashears, © National Geographic) #
  11 In Iceland the bountiful Kolgrima River inscribes the earth on its seaward path. (Hans Strand, © National Geographic) #
  12 A swan swims at Lake Toepper (Toeppersee) in the western German city of Duisburg on March 11, 2010. (Jens Schlueter/AFP/Getty Images) #
  13 Balancing on a slippery makeshift ladder, women pass precious gallons hand to hand up a well nine people deep in the Marsabit region of northern Kenya. After the water reaches the surface, the women will compete for it with thirsty livestock. (Lynn Johnson, © National Geographic) #
  14 Gabra women in northern Kenya spend up to five hours a day carrying heavy jerry cans filled with murky water. A lingering drought has pushed this already arid region to a water crisis. (Lynn Johnson, © National Geographic) #
  15 Homes are surrounded by flood waters from the swollen Red River, Sunday, March 21, 2010, south of Fargo, North Dakota. The river crested at Fargo today at about 37 feet, nearly four feet short of last year's record crest of nearly 41 feet. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green) #
  16 Flood water drains from a ditch along Interstate 29 March 21, 2010 south of Fargo, North Dakota. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) #
  17 At up to six feet long, the Chinese giant salamander is the world's largest. It secretes a slippery, foul-smelling mucus when harassed, but that doesn't keep people from eating it and using it in folk medicines. (Joel Sartore, © National Geographic) #
  18 Tracking the return of a native species to Tennessee's Abrams Creek, snorkeling scientists search under flat rocks for the smoky madtom - a two-inch catfish. (Joel Sartore, © National Geographic) #
  19 Upsala Glacier as seen from the International Space Station in February of 2010. Upsala is a large valley glacier in Argentina's Los Glaciares National Park.Google Map. (NASA/JSC) #
  20 Villagers and donkeys near Marsabit, Kenya, lean into a trough at the top of a "singing well" - so called because the people who form bucket brigades to bring the water up from deep underground sing as they work. Each visitor is allowed to fill only one large jerry can a day - and the women usually have to wait until after the animals have drunk their fill. (Lynn Johnson © National Geographic) #
  21 This photo released on February 26, 2010 from the Australian Antarctic Division shows the the Mertz Glacier Tongue, a 160-kilometer spit of floating ice protruding into the Southern Ocean from East Antarctica, in 2007. Researchers said on February 25, 2010 that the iceberg the size of Luxembourg - or some 2,550 square kilometres (985 square miles) in size - knocked loose from the Antarctic continent earlier this month and could disrupt the ocean currents driving weather patterns around the globe. (B. LEGRESY/AFP/Getty Images) #
• 

  purplesofa

  
  23 Southern California draws much of its water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which was diked and divided into farms more than a century ago. Many of the aging levees are at risk of failure. (© Edward Burtynsky, National Geographic) #
  24 Once the city's main water source, the Los Angeles River is now a concrete channel fed by storm drains. City residents rely on water piped in from hundreds of miles away. (© Edward Burtynsky, National Geographic) #
  25 A Chinese softball player hits a ball during a sandstorm in Beijing on March 20, 2010. Beijingers woke up to find the Chinese capital blanketed in yellow dust, as a sandstorm caused by a severe drought in the north and in Mongolia swept into the city. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) #
  26 A man drinks from a pipe March 18, 2010 in the streets of quake-struck Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (THONY BELIZAIRE/AFP/Getty Images) #
  27 A dead fish is seen floating in a polluted river on the outskirts of Yingtan, Jiangxi province March 20, 2010. (REUTERS/Stringer) #
  28 Norwood Airport in Norwood, Massachusetts showed the impact of recent flooding on March 16, 2010 as crews undertook cleanup operations across the state. (David L. Ryan/Globe Staff) #
  29 A man delivers water from a water tank in shanty town Pamplona at Villa Maria Del Triunfo, near Peru's capital Lima, March 20, 2010. Working toilets and clean drinking water are unattainable luxuries for a third of the Peru's city dwellers and two-thirds of its rural population, one of the world's highest levels for a middle-income country that boasts a fast-growing economy, huge investor interest and ample Andean water resources. (REUTERS/Mariana Bazo) #
  30 A picture taken on February 10, 2010 shows the Churchill dam as it is 17 percent full in the Kareedouw region, West of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The green pitch at Port Elizabeth's World Cup stadium has become an island in a sea of brown, exempt from restrictions imposed due to a drought that has scorched the land outside. (STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP/Getty Images) #
  31 Mahendra Kumar surfaces to catch his breath as he dives into a polluted section of the River Yamuna to scavenge for ornaments and coins left by Hindu rituals at the river bank, in New Delhi, India, Monday, March 22, 2010. Officials say factories are ignoring regulations and dumping untreated sewage and industrial pollution, turning toxic the river that gives the capital much of its drinking water. (AP Photo/Gurinder Osan) #
  32 A villager bathes under a hose pipe used for the irrigation of rice field, as his son, left, looks on, on the outskirts of Amritsar, India, Monday, March 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) #
  33 A floating restaurant is stranded in a branch of the Yangtze River in Chongqing Municipality, March 21, 2010. A severe drought across a large swath of southwest China is now affecting more than 50 million people, and forecasters see no signs of it abating in the short term, state media said on Friday. (REUTERS/Stringer)#
  34 Pere David's deer, or milu, walk in water at the Yangtze River Swan Islet Pere David's Deer Nature Reserve on April 22, 2008 in Shishou of Hubei Province, China. The nature reserve, a wetland covering an area of about 69 square kilometers, contains over 1,000 Pere David's deer, the largest wild population of the animal in the world. (China Photos/Getty Images) #
  35 4,000 baby bottles containing polluted water stand on the Bundesplatz in Bern, Switzerland, Monday, March 22. 2010. The action was organized by the Swiss association for International Cooperation Helvetas to highlight the UN's World Water Day. (AP Photo/Keystone/Peter Klaunzer) #
  36 A fisherman paddles his canoe through dead fish along Manaquiri River, a tributary of the Amazon, near the city of Manaquiri, November 28, 2009. The world's biggest rainforest is suffering from seasonal drought, killing tons of fish. (REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker) #
  37 A section of Lake Nasser in Egypt, a massive reservoir behind the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River, seen from the International Space Station in January of 2010. The lake is capable of storing some 157 cubic kilometers (37.5 cubic miles) of fresh water. Google Map. (NASA/JSC) #
  38 Chinese villagers draw water from a 158-year-old well in Caojiazhuang village, on the outskirts of Guiyang, southwestern China's Guizhou province on March 20, 2010. Millions of people face drinking water shortages in southwestern China because of a once-a-century drought that has dried up rivers and threatens vast farmlands in Guizhou, Yunnan, and Sichuan provinces, the Guangxi region, and the mega-city of Chongqing for months, with rainfall 60 percent below normal since September. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) #
  39 Severed from the edge of Antarctica, this iceberg might float for years as it melts and releases its store of fresh water into the sea. The water molecules will eventually evaporate, condense, and recycle back to Earth as precipitation. (Camille Seaman, © National Geographic) #
  40 Hoses used to supply residences with water are seen hanging across a street at the Penjaringan subdistrict in Jakarta, Indonesia on March 22, 2010. Residents in the area say that they have had to construct makeshift water supplies for their homes by attaching hoses to pumps bought with their own money, as the government has yet to repair the original water supply which was damaged. (REUTERS/Beawiharta) #
  41 An Indian village boy runs through a parched field on World Water Day in Berhampur, Orissa state, India, Monday, March 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Biswaranjan Rout)#
  42 A Balinese couple kiss while the crowd pours water over them during the traditional kissing festival called "Omed-Omedan" in Denpasar on the resort island of Bali on March 17, 2010. The annual ritual is held one day after the Hindu New Year called "Nyepi" in Bali, also celebrated as the "Day of Silence" where local young men and women gather in groups on a main road after prayer at the temple. The men compete against each other to kiss the girl while other douse the couple with water while they embrace in a kiss. (SONNY TUMBELAKA/AFP/Getty Images) #
  43 A drop of water falls from a melting piece of ice on Argentina's Perito Moreno glacier near the city of El Calafate, in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, December 16, 2009. (REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci) #
  MORE LINKS AND INFORMATION World Water Day Official site "Water: Our Thirsty World" - Full National Geographic April, 2010 issue, free for download until April 2nd, 2010 National Geographic - Official site < Back to front page

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  chickpea

  excellent redux, purps!!

  i am a fan of the state department on FB so
  i listened to sec'y clinton speaking at the
  event hosted by nat geo .... i recommend
  the 24 minute speech to anyone who wants
  to hear what the world situation is in regard
  to potable water and sanitation...

  water is going to be the flashpoint in
  conflicts in the 21st century...
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  skeeter1

  Thanks. That was a wonderful post.
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  poopsiecakes

  wow, powerful images....thanks for posting this, purps