World Water Day: awareness and technology, keys to saving

The Forum maintains that the extensive information on climate change echoed by the media and social networks has contributed significantly to raising public awareness of the water problem. Its academic director, Estanislao Arana, points out that the The situation has improved a lot in recent years.: the population is much more aware than before of the importance of water and, above all, of the need to save it. The campaigns that are being carried out, as well as the dissemination of news about water scarcity, are fulfilling their objectives”.

Along with raising awareness through information and campaigns, the Forum stresses the role of the education from an early age. “At the end of the mandatory training period, young people should be clear about the value of water from its different perspectives: both from the conservation of ecosystems and its management in urban and rural areas,” says Estanislao Arana, who advocates expanding the current contents that are taught in schools to the entire water cycle, that is, “how water is obtained, distributed, purified and returned to nature”.

Along with raising awareness, the Water Economy Forum recalls the importance of providing citizens with tools to be able to save water effectively, such as the most efficient household appliances or smart water meterswhich provide detailed information on how and how much water is consumed.

A task that involves the participation of all

This year’s World Water Day coincides with the start of the United Nations World Water Conference, which will take place in New York from March 22 to 24 and whose main objective is to review and promote compliance with the commitments of the 2030 Agenda linked to water, which, due to its cross-cutting nature, affects all the Sustainable Development Goals.

This meeting, in which the Forum for the Economy of Water will participate through an official parallel event, aims to obtain a action schedule for the coming years to promote progress in universal access to water and sanitation, taking into account its effects on the health and social and economic development of communities.

“Advancing in the universality of access to drinking water and sanitation will only be possible if we all join the task,” says Francisco Lombardo, president of the Forum for the Economy of Water. “Along with the involvement of civil society, we also need the contribution of the public sector, private companies and academia, in line with SDG 17. Above all, let us not lose sight of the fact that what is at stake is the survival of younger generations and those not yet born”, he concludes.