ALEXANDRIA, VA, March 22, 2005 -- The Water Environment Federation (WEF) joined the United Nations (UN) in marking today as World Water Day 2005. Commemorating this event is an excellent opportunity to strive for improvements and highlight the inter-relatedness of water to human health and sustainable development.
The theme for this year is "Water for Life: 2005-2015" and marks the beginning of the UN's "International Decade for Action." The decade of action, proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in December 2003, calls for an increased global focus on water-related issues and encourages greater participation and cooperation on all levels to achieve water-related goals including bringing clean water and sanitation to almost 1.1 billion people still lacking access to the finite resource.
This theme supports the primary goal of WEF, a not-for-profit technical and educational organization, and the water quality community to protect public health and ensure good stewardship of the world's most precious resource. "As leaders in the effort to protect public health and improve the global water environment, WEF remains committed to meeting the water quality challenges of today to ensure the sustainability of water resources into the future," said WEF Executive Director Bill Bertera.
World Water Day is officially recognized each year on March 22. The goal is to inspire worldwide political and community action and encourage greater global understanding of the need for more responsible water use and conservation.
For more information about how you can celebrate World Water Day in your community, visit www.worldwaterday.org.
For more information on the Water For Life Decade, see: www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/.
Founded in 1928, the Water Environment Federation (www.wef.org) is a not-for-profit technical and educational organization with members from varied disciplines who work toward the WEF vision of preservation and enhancement of the global water environment. The WEF network includes water quality professionals from 76 member associations in 30 countries.
For related news items, see:
-- "UN's FAO focuses attention on food and water for 'Water For Life' Decade"
-- "WaterAid reports, 'Water Problems Reach Boiling Point'"
-- "New NSF educational materials help consumers drink safer on World Water Day"
-- "GE Infrastructure celebrates World Water Day with commitment to world's natural resources"
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