What you need to know about World Water Day and how to participate

Every year on March 22, people around the world mark World Water Day—a day dedicated to recognizing the value of freshwater and the challenges surrounding access to it. With World Water Day just around the corner, I am exploring what it is and which theme the UN has chosen for 2026.

What is World Water Day?

World Water Day is observed every year on March 22 and has been recognized as a United Nations observance since 1993. The annual event highlights the importance of freshwater and raises awareness about global water challenges. Each year, UN-Water selects a theme and leads the global campaign, coordinating a task force that helps plan and promote activities around the world.

The World Water Day theme for 2026

Every year the UN chooses a theme for World Water day. The theme for 2026 is:

Where water flows, equality grows.

The theme for 2026 highlights the close connection between access to safe water and gender equality. In many parts of the world, women and girls are most affected by water shortages and poor sanitation. Women and girls often spend significantly more time collecting water and caring for those made sick by unsafe water than men and boys. Based on countries with available data, women and girls spend 250 million hours per day on water collection, which is over three times more than men and boys.

By ensuring women have a stronger voice in water management and decision-making, communities can create healthier, more equitable opportunities for everyone.

Quick Facts on Water

Why does World Water Day matter? Where I live in British Columbia we are surrounded by water–from oceans to rivers to lakes, we don’t have to go far to see good clean water we can access. With all that access it can be easy to forget that the world is not created equal and many people have very little access to clean drinking water.

Here are a few quick facts on water quoted from The United Nations World Water Development Report 2025:

• An estimated 2.2 billion people (27% of the global population) were without access to safely managed drinking water in 2022. Four out of five people lacking at least basic drinking water services lived in rural areas.

• As of 2022, 3.5 billion people worldwide lacked access to safely managed sanitation. The situation was particularly dire in Sub-Saharan Africa, where a mere 24% of the population used safely managed sanitation services. Lack of access also persists in other regions, such as Latin America and the Caribbean, and Central and Southern Asia, where only roughly 50% of the population had access to these services

• Data trends show water-related ecosystems are continuing to face significant levels of degradation. This is primarily driven by pollution, dams, land conversion, overabstraction and climate change.

• For billions of people, mountain meltwater is essential for drinking water and sanitation, food and energy security, and the integrity of the environment. But today, as the world warms, glaciers are melting faster than ever, making the water cycle more unpredictable and extreme. And because of glacial retreat, floods, droughts, landslides and sea-level rise are intensifying, with devastating consequences for people and nature.

How to Participate in World Water Day

Try taking the learn, share, and act approach this World Water Day. Take some time to explore resources and material to learn more about water and equality, then share about it. Take to social media or simply in the break room at work to have conversations about access to clean drinking water, the look at ways to act. Look for campaigns to participate in or petitions to sign that take steps towards water equality for all.

World Water Day Resources

Check out these resources to learn more about World Water Day:

UN World Water Day website: www.un.org/en/observances/water-day

UN-Water’s Water Facts on water and gender: www.unwater.org/water-facts/water-and-gender

UN World Water Development Report 2026 on water and gender (bookmark this as it is to be released on 19 March during the World Water Day campaign) www.unwater.org/publications/un-world-water-development-report

UNICEF’s action brief on Adolescent Girls’ Access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: www.unicef.org/documents/adolescent-girls-access-water-sanitation-hygiene

Spotlight on SDG 6: From Commodity to Common Good: A Feminist Agenda to Tackle the World’s Water Crisis: www.unwater.org/sites/default/files/202307/from_commodity_to_common_good. pdf

Mainstreaming gender equality in water resource management: Global status and 7 pathways to progress: www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2025-03/policy-brief-mainstreaming-gender-equality-in-water-resources-management-en.pdf

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