What is World Water Monitoring Day?
Everyone knows that water is an absolute essential for life*.
In this country, by far the majority of us are able to access clean, fresh water whenever we need, simply by turning on a tap. But that is most certainly not the case for the majority of people on earth. In 2003, the Clean Water Foundation in America established the first World Water Monitoring Day.
Water Monitoring Day was established to encourage and educate people on how to monitor the components of the water in their local area. Water pollution is a serious problem, and learning how to identify, take care of, and prevent it is more important with every passing year.
Associated with World Water Monitoring Day is the World Water Monitoring Challenge (now called the EarthEcho Water Challenge). The Challenge encourages people across the world to:
- Test their water to find out the state of the water quality in your home or area
- Share the data, photos and stories in an online, worldwide database
- Protect your local water supplies, now that you know the state of your water supply, and how it compares with others around the world.
For 20 years, 4T has been doing our bit – testing and monitoring the surface water and groundwater of Queensland. Consequently, we’ve built up a pretty good database of water quality and its changes over time. Other organisations, such as the Fitzroy Basin Association, have also contributed immensely to our knowledge of the water ecosystems in Central Queensland.
What can you do to help?
On World Water Monitoring Day, stop for a moment and consider what small things you could do in your everyday life to help protect our water. It is so easy for those of us in developed economies to take it for granted, but we need to remember – always – that water is a finite resource.
Here’s some ideas to get you started.
If you’ve got some ideas to share, post your photos and stories on social media using @MonitorWater #MonitorWater.
*Water has been detected on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, and to avoid the possibility of contaminating any potential life, the spacecraft Cassini was directed into Saturn’s atmosphere to burn up.