Water Insecurity
Living the Global Water Crisis: How the World Experiences Water Insecurity
By CSIS
As populations around the world grapple with water security challenges that threaten lives, livelihoods, and political stability, efforts to bolster prosperity and avert crises require high-quality data that inform strategies to provide adequate quantities of stable and safe water to all. The Water Insecurity Experiences (WISE) Scales are innovative tools—used by researchers and decisionmakers alike—that enhance the ability to measure the lived experience of water insecurity and translate that understanding into development action and policy implementation. The world’s ability to anticipate and react to existing and novel threats of the global water crisis will be dictated, in part, by the collective capacity to turn this data into policy, and this policy into action.
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In 2005, the United Nations launched the Water for Life Decade to help create a greater awareness of the need to better care for our water resources. Following this, the establishment of World Rivers Day was in response to a proposal initiated by internationally renowned river advocate, Mark Angelo.
The proposal for a global event to celebrate rivers was based on the success of BC Rivers Day, which Mark Angelo had founded and led in western Canada since 1980. A World Rivers Day event was seen by agencies of the UN as a good fit for the aims of the Water for Life Decade and the proposal was approved. River enthusiasts from around the world came together to organize the inaugural WRD event. That first event in 2005 was a great success and Rivers Day was celebrated across dozens of countries. Since then, the event has continued to grow. It is annually celebrated on the fourth Sunday of every September. Last year, several million people in up to 100 countries celebrated the many values of our waterways.
About the Founder
Mark Angelo hails from Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, and is an internationally celebrated river conservationist. He is the founder and Chair of both BC and World Rivers Day and is Chair Emeritus of the Rivers Institute at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). Mark was also the long time head of BCIT’s Fish, Wildlife and Recreation Program. He has received both the Order of British Columbia and the Order of Canada (his country’s highest honour) in recognition of his river conservation efforts over the past four decades. Among his many other awards are the United Nations Stewardship Award and the National River Conservation Award. As an avid paddler, Mark has travelled along close to 1000 rivers around the world, perhaps more than any other person. From 2003 to 2006, his acclaimed Riverworld program played to sold-out audiences across North America and the program’s website had more than 40 million visits. Mark continues to work on conservation issues in his community and province, as well as across Canada and elsewhere in the world. Mark has written more than 300 articles and essays about his experiences and related conservation issues. He is a regular contributor to newspaper travel sections and is the Past Chair of the Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council. In 2009, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Simon Fraser University for his river conservation work both locally and globally and in 2019, Mark was bestowed with an Honorary Doctorate from Trent University in recognition of his long time efforts to protect waterways around the world. Mark is a Fellow International of the New York based Explorers Club, a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society, and in late 2016 completed working on the award winning global river documentary film entitled RiverBlue. Learn more about Mark.
To learn more about the history of Rivers Day and its founder, Mark Angelo, please read articles published in the Vancouver Sun, Burnaby Now and CBC on September 27, 2012, September 25, 2015, September 19, 2017, September 24, 2017 and September 6, 2019.
Also, see the article in the June 2020 Canadian Geographic magazine and view the trailer for the film, Last Paddle; 1000 Rivers, 1 Life.
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