Water Ripples Social Media

28 April 2015

On 22 March, there were three posts per second relating to World Water Day with thousands of people posting #WaterIs selfies. The maximum potential impact doubled from 2014 to 2015 with 1.3 billion people exposed to the hashtag #WorldWaterDay according to the report by Alto Social Analytics.

The global celebration of World Water Day took place around 22 March with the official UN celebrations in India and New York. Local communities, schools, NGOs and associations celebrated water by organizing debates, screening films, teaching classes, organizing catwalks, and marching for water issues. At the UN Headquarters in New York, the Permanent Missions of Sweden and the Republic of Benin organized with a group of UN-Water Members and Partners an event to explain the proposed goal on water and sanitation for the Post-2015 Development Agenda and the interlinkages with the other 16 proposed goals.

On social media, water issues were discussed extensively through the hashtag #WaterIs. Many celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Pharrell Williams, Britney Spears and Orlando Bloom lent their voices to raise awareness as well as Executive Heads in the UN, organization- and business leaders and spiritual leaders such as Archbishop Desmund Tutu. In many places where water is linked to a strong health concern such as cholera in Haiti, the #WaterIs campaign was successful mobilizing support and groups. The 2015 campaign on 'Water and Sustainable Development' will run until September 2015 highlighting teaching material, film releases and promotional material and culminate at the intergovernmental negotiations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

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Summary

In 2015, the theme for World Water Day is ‘Water and Sustainable Development’. It’s about how water links to all areas we need to consider to create the future we want.