World Water Day is on 22 March. It focuses on the people who still lack safe drinking water, and on protecting water resources.
The date is 22 March.
How to use the World Water Day Countdown#
- Check the date. World Water Day is on 22 March every year.
- Choose what to count to. Stay on the next World Water Day, or look a year further ahead.
- Plan around it. The weekday and the weeks left are listed, so you can see at once how it fits your week.
A day with a purpose#
The idea came from the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. The UN General Assembly designated 22 March as World Water Day in 1993, and it has been marked each year since. According to the UN, billions of people still live without safely managed drinking water. Each year has a theme, covering topics like groundwater, sanitation and the link between water and climate.
What you can do#
Fix leaks, since a dripping tap can waste a lot of water over a month. Collect rainwater for gardens. Support projects that build wells and sanitation. Schools can test local water sources and discuss findings. A clean-up of a stream or water point works best with about a month’s planning.
When is World Water Day in the next few years?#
World Water Day is on 22 March every year.
| Year | Date | Day of the week |
|---|---|---|
| 2027 | 22 March | Monday |
| 2028 | 22 March | Wednesday |
| 2029 | 22 March | Thursday |
| 2030 | 22 March | Friday |
| 2031 | 22 March | Saturday |
The numbers behind the day#
According to the WHO and UNICEF’s monitoring programme, around 2.2 billion people still lack safely managed drinking water, which means water that is on the premises, available when needed and free from contamination. About 3.5 billion lack safely managed sanitation. Sustainable Development Goal 6 aims to fix both by 2030, and most reports say the world is off track.
In Nigeria, a large share of households rely on boreholes, wells and vendors, and the government declared a state of emergency on water, sanitation and hygiene in 2018, with a campaign to end open defecation.
Water at home, in litres#
Small habits add up. A showerhead that runs at about 9 litres a minute uses 45 litres in a five-minute shower, and 90 litres if two people shower one after the other. A tap that drips once a second loses well over a thousand litres in a year. Flushing a toilet can use between 6 and 9 litres a time in older cisterns, so a leaky cistern is worth fixing first.
If you collect rainwater, a barrel under a downpipe supplies a garden for weeks. Keep it covered to stop mosquitoes from breeding.
Planning an event#
Work back from Mon 22 March 2027, which is a Monday in 2027:
| When | What to do | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 5 weeks out | Choose a clean-up or a test of local water sources | Mon 15 February 2027 |
| 3 weeks out | Invite volunteers and arrange supplies | Mon 1 March 2027 |
| 1 week out | Check the site and the forecast | Mon 15 March 2027 |
A school can test water from home, borehole and tap with a basic kit and compare results in class.
Quick facts#
- Roughly 70 percent of the fresh water people withdraw is used for farming, with industry and households sharing the rest.
- Women and girls carry most of the water in households without a tap, and the UN says they spend millions of hours a day collecting it.
- Diarrhoeal disease linked to unsafe water, poor sanitation and poor hygiene is a major cause of death in children under five.
- Only a tiny share of the world’s water is fresh and easy to reach. Most is in oceans, ice caps and deep underground.
World Water Day falls two days after the International Day of Happiness, and a school could pair the two: a lesson on water at the start of the week and a thank-you round on the Friday.
Frequently asked questions#
22 March.
The UN General Assembly, in 1993.
The idea came out of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. The General Assembly then designated 22 March as World Water Day in 1993, and it has been observed every year since. UN-Water, the UN’s coordination body for water, runs the campaign and picks a theme each year.
Fix leaks, turn the tap off while you brush your teeth, take shorter showers and run washing machines only with a full load. Water the garden in the early morning or evening, and use a bucket and a cloth in place of a hose to wash a car. Collecting rainwater for plants is another simple step that costs little.
Not always. In places with treated and well-maintained supply, tap water is tested more often than bottled water and costs far less. Where the supply is unreliable, boiling water for a minute, filtering and chlorinating all help, and sealed bottled or sachet water from a registered producer is a reasonable stopgap. Ask your local water authority which approach is right for your area.