Water is life: saving the most precious resource on earth

It has been said that water is life, few simple statements have been so true. Just look at the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals, part of the 2030 agenda, to see how all of these globally agreed upon goals depend on the availability of freshwater. World Water Day (WWD) has been celebrated since 1993 as an opportunity to stop and think about the importance of freshwater in our lives. This year WWD (22 March) marks the start of the first UN Water conference in 50 years, a key outcome of which will be the Water Action Agenda, the collection of all water-related voluntary commitments to achieve the aforementioned 2030 agenda.

So far progress towards these goals is worryingly off-track: there is an ongoing increase in pollution from urbanisation and intensive agricultural activities, with a 25% increase in fertiliser use in the last two decades. The combination of pollution, loss of habitats and connectivity and climate change have decimated the biodiversity of freshwater ecosystems, with the loss of more than 80% of the freshwater megafauna populations since 1970.?Climate change complicates this already complex picture, with temperature and rainfall extremes directly impacting freshwater resources. 2022 was Europe’s worst drought in 500 years, North America’s in 1000 years, and China worst since recording began. These conditions are expected to displace 700 million people by 2030 and have direct and indirect consequences on nearly all major global issues, from health to hunger, gender equality to jobs, education to industry, and natural disasters to peace.

Despite these challenges World Water Day is also an opportunity to celebrate the successes of local and global efforts to make things better. The growing attention of the young generations to reverse the trends of environmental loss, the increasing actions of communities to take a more active control in environmental policy and management, the SDGs themselves are all signs that that change is occurring. There is an increase in national and international efforts to protect and restore critical freshwater ecosystems, reduce pollution pressures and create conditions that allow both humans and biodiversity to flourish.?

At Earthwatch Europe, we see this first hand, through the growing number of communities that use citizen science to gain knowledge about their local environment, influence policy and share information with Agencies and regulatory bodies. In the last ten years, we have worked with hundreds of communities that are trying to better understand and take more control of their local freshwater environment.

The most successful of these projects have been characterised by partnerships of multiple stakeholders, NGOs, Agencies, universities, farming associations and industries and communities who are working together to better monitor and manage the lakes, rivers and wetlands on which everyone depends.

We are not alone, with more and more action globally focussing on water stewardship. These successes are something to celebrate as they show that a better appreciation of freshwater ecosystems and their services is reaching across sectors and stakeholders.?We hope the commitments agreed at UN Water conference this week reflect this spirit of collaboration and stewardship.

For far too long we have undervalued water. Now is the time to work in partnership, take action, and secure our most precious resource on earth.?

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Author: Prof. Steven Loiselle, Senior Research Lead at Earthwatch Europe

Prof. Steven Loiselle leads the FreshWater Watch global citizen science programme and works with communities to address local and global environmental challenges, in partnership with business, regulatory and research stakeholders.

FreshWater Watch is active in more than 40 counties in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas and with more than 10,000 citizen scientists working to improve the resilience of their local water bodies and their conservation. He has led international research studies of the African Great Lakes, Paraná wetlands, Mediterranean rivers, and shallow lakes in the Yangtze valley.

FreshWater Watch

FreshWater Watch is a global citizen science project developed by Earthwatch Europe.

We created FreshWater Watch to enable and empower groups all across the globe to easily monitor and protect the health of the rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, wetlands and reservoirs upon which we all depend.

It has never been so important to protect our precious freshwater resources. Get in touch to explore the impact your organisation could make by becoming a project partner: [email protected]