Valuing water on World Water Week

Malta will join the rest of the world to celebrate once more the National Water Day on 22^nd March. The aim behind this drive is to educate the public about their responsibility in water conservation initiatives, raising awareness around the need to protect and conserve the country’s water resources. Every year, the World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater. This year’s theme is “Groundwater: making the invisible visible”.

Groundwater is a vital resource that provides almost half of all drinking water worldwide, about 40% of water for irrigated agriculture and about 1/3 of water required for industry. It sustains ecosystems, maintains the base flow of rivers and prevents land subsidence and seawater intrusion. Groundwater is an important part of climate change adaptation process and is often a solution for people without access to safe water. Almost all the liquid freshwater in the world is groundwater. Life would not be possible without groundwater.

Despite these impressive facts and figures, groundwater is invisible, but its impact is visible everywhere. Exploring, protecting and sustainably using groundwater will be central to surviving, adapting to climate change and meeting the needs of a growing population.

World Water Day celebrates water and raises awareness on the critical role groundwater will play in adapting to climate change. We need to work together to sustainably manage this precious resource. The ‘Water – Be the Change’ campaign has been on the forefront in educating and increasing awareness on the importance of protecting groundwater from pollution and use it sustainably, by balancing the needs of people and the environment.

This campaign was launched in September 2019 with the aim of delivering an effective educational and awareness raising campaign on the optimised and efficient use of water resources to facilitate a cultural shift in people’s behaviour towards water conservation on the Maltese Islands.

Leading to this day, an info-point stand of the national water conservation campaign ‘WATER – Be the Change’ will be stationed at Valletta Pjazza l-Assedju l-Kbir (opposite the Law court), between the 16th and the 22nd March. The main aim of the water campaign is to deliver knowledge and easy to apply methods about conservation of water at home, in agriculture and at work. This will then lead to a behavioural change on water usage which will reflect into less wasting.

During this special week, come join the ‘WATER – Be the Change’ campaign and the Energy and Water Agency to celebrate the value of groundwater – water has enormous value for our households, food, culture, health, education, economics and the integrity of our natural environment.

Those visiting this stand will have the opportunity to participate in a quiz, learn more on the value of the gift packs and kits, assist to experiments related to water throughout the day, such as the 'Water cycle', 'Cloud in a bottle', 'Water filter and density'.

Visitors can visit the stand and ask staff on how they can become champions in water conservation in their day-to-day life. Add to this, those visiting this stand, will be exposed to more informative information, material and merchandise, as part of the national water conservation campaign.

 It’s interesting to note that World Water Day was founded by the United Nations (UN) and the first commemorative day was held on March 22, 1993, and it has been held on the same day ever since. Thanks to the national campaign, ‘Water – Be the Change’, Malta is fostering the priority of water in our life’s by nurturing awareness for the global water scarcity and encourage others to safeguard this essential element whenever possible.