World Water Day was created by the United Nations in 1993 as a way to provide the public with messages explaining the world water crisis and outlining their new initiatives to alleviate these problems. This years event is titled the “International Year of Water Cooperation” for these reasons:
UN-Water has called upon UNESCO to lead the 2013 International Year of Water Cooperation in view of the organization’s multi-dimensional mandate in the realm of natural and social sciences, culture, education and communication, and its significant and long-standing contribution to the management of the world’s freshwater resources.
As always, the World Water Day celebration is created to provide education and current research to the public so that they become aware of the environmental and social implications of the low world water supply. UN and UNESCO created a few different social media outlets to follow for more information:
- Website: 2013 WWD
- Twitter: @UNW_WWD
- Facebook Page: UN-Water World Water Day
- Flickr Photostream: UN-Water World Water Day
- YouTube Channel: UN-Water World Water Day
You may want to check out these campaigns by Charity: Water and Water.org as well!
- Charity: Water is quite simply “a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations” which utilizes the 100% model for charity: they donate 100% proceeds to countries and communities in need around the world. Watch this cool video they made for World Water Day in 2009 for more information and facts and figures about the world water crisis. Also, join them on Facebook and Twitter.
- Water.org also launches a campaign in March for World Water Day. This organization is “a nonprofit organization that has transformed hundreds of communities in Africa, South Asia, and Central America by providing access to safe water and sanitation” founded by Matt Damon and Gary White. Water.org encourages a few practices to help spread the word about World Water Day and the world water crisis: donate your social media voice to the cause creates statuses on Facebook and posts on Twitter on your behalf), hashtag #waterday on Instagram, change your Facebook cover photo to this image or this image, pin this image or this image to Pinterest, change your Twitter background to this image, and sign up for the Water.org newsletter.
During the week, you will be seeing my Facebook posts and tweets have been taken over by Water.org to spread the word and hopefully inspire people to donate or learn about the cause. Happy World Water Day!
Abbey Dufoe 