Today is World Water Day

World Water Day celebrates water and raises awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water. It is about taking action to tackle the global water crisis. A core focus of World Water Day is to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.  

This year's World Water Day theme, Glacier Preservation, highlights the urgent need to protect glaciers, as their rapid melting threatens water security, ecosystems and livelihoods, requiring collective global and local action.

"Glaciers may be shrinking, but we cannot shrink from our responsibilities ... Action this year is critical. Every country must deliver strong national climate action plans aligned with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius," reminds UN Secretary-General, António Guterres.

As part of the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation 2025, a joint celebration of the World Day for Glaciers and World Water Day will be organized to highlight the accelerating threat of glacier melt and its impact on water security, communities and ecosystems. With glaciers melting at record rates, this joint celebration will underscore the importance of glaciers as “water towers of the world” for billions of people who rely on them. 

World leaders, policymakers, scientists, civil society and advocacy groups will come together to discuss the importance of glaciers in global water systems, their impact on ecosystems, sea levels, and human societies, and to drive concerted action to protect water supplies and glaciers for future generations.

The event will also mark the launch of the 2025 World Water Development Report, themed "High Mountains and Glaciers". The report emphasizes glaciers' role in sustaining water supplies and maintaining ecosystem stability, offering data-driven insights to guide sustainable water management and adaptation strategies for communities worldwide. Further, the event will lay the foundation for the Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences (2025-2034), fostering international cooperation in scientific research and monitoring to address the impacts of cryosphere changes.