The Udall Center Commemorates World Water Day
Every year since 1994, the world has marked March 22nd as World Water Day. The occasion focuses our attention on the critical importance of water for the planet and its inhabitants. Each World Water Day has featured a signal theme, beginning with “Caring for our Water Resources is Everybody's Business,” and including such topics as “Transboundary Waters,” “Water for Health,” “Water for Cities,” “Women and Water,” “Water and Food Security,” “Water and Energy,” “Water and Climate Change,” “Nature for Water,” and this year’s topic, “Groundwater: Making the Invisible Visible.”
In its 35 years of existence, beginning with its pioneering work on U.S.-Mexico transboundary water management, the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy has engaged each of those themes and others. Among the Center’s prominent efforts are major contributions to the Global Environmental Facility’s (GEF) “Groundwater Governance: A Global Framework for Country Action” program; funded stakeholder research in the San Pedro basin for the Dialogue on Water and Climate and the (Canada-U.S.-Mexico) Commission for Environmental Cooperation; stakeholder engagement around green infrastructure in the Tucson community and at the U.S.-Mexico borderlands; an evaluation of UNESCO’s World Water Assessment Programme; and leadership of the Americas component of the International Water Security Network.
The Udall Center looks forward to continuing its community-oriented policy research for many World Water Days to come.