World Water Day is celebrated annually on March 22 to draw attention to the importance of freshwater resources and promote sustainable management. This Day provides an opportunity to take action to overcome the global water crisis in support of Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDGs): ensuring the availability and rational use of water resources and sanitation for all by 2030.

In 2024, World Water Day is dedicated to accelerating transformation in order to resolve the crisis in the field of water supply and sanitation, and UNESCO is the leading UN agency in this area.

"On this World Day, UNESCO would like to remind you that the water cycle in nature has a planetary character and never takes into account the boundaries laid by people. We need to always remember this and see in water exactly what it really is – a vital and common asset for all mankind, the use of which is an issue requiring the participation of all mankind," UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay said in her message.

"Today, every second person in the world suffers from water shortages for several months during the year. And in some regions of the world, where previously there could not be enough water only in exceptional cases, now its shortage has become something familiar," the message says.

Ensuring access to water and conserving water resources are among the main challenges facing our society. Their solution requires the development of new models of consumption and management of this valuable resource. This conclusion follows from the latest World Report on the State of Water Resources, prepared by UNESCO on behalf of the UN–Water mechanism.

This year's annual report, released to mark World Water Day on March 22, focuses on the theme "Water for prosperity and peace." On this occasion, UNESCO recalled the importance of dialogue and cooperation in the field of water resources, whether surface or groundwater, both in liquid state and in the form of ice.

"This international cooperation is not just desirable, but necessary, because more than 40% of the world's population lives in the basins of transboundary rivers, which account for almost 60% of the world's freshwater reserves," Azoulay stressed.

The UN World Water Development Report 2024: Water for Prosperity and Peace highlights the broader importance of water for our lives and livelihoods. It explores the ability of water to unite people and serve as a tool for peace, sustainable development, combating climate change and regional integration.

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