Some 212,502 people worldwide visited their local streams, rivers, lakes and other water bodies to mark World Water Monitoring Day (WWMD) 2010, according to the program’s Year in Review report released by the event sponsors, the Water Environment Federation and the International Water Association (IWA). The results represent a 73 percent increase in participation from 2009.
As an international education and outreach program that builds public awareness and involvement in protecting water resources, WWMD engages citizens to conduct basic monitoring of their local waterways. Although some participants acted as individuals, many took part with school, university, civic, environmental, and faith-based groups. Data was reported from 85 countries, up four from 2009. The United States had 2,931 monitored sites, followed by Spain with 1,485, Romania with 301, and Malaysia with 290.
Participants from Albania to Zimbabwe tested their local waterways for dissolved oxygen (DO), pH (acidity), temperature, and turbidity (clarity). Some also monitored for certain macroinvertebrates such as dragonflies, mayflies and scuds. Samples were taken in a range of settings -- agricultural, commercial, residential and industrial -- on six continents. Throughout 2010, the program distributed more than 16,500 monitoring kits, 500 more kits than in the previous year.
WWMD is officially observed each year on Sept. 18. Participants can monitor and report data to the WWMD database anytime from March 22 (World Water Day) until Dec. 31. WEF and IWA received financial and in-kind support from the program’s primary sponsors including the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. EPAgency, PerkinElmer, ITT Corporation, Sinclair Knight Merz, and Smithfield Foods.
For a complete list of program partners, as well as more detailed statistics, see the WWM 2010 Year in Review at www.worldwatermonitoringday.org.
