World Water Day is a United Nations day celebrated on March 22 each year to raise awareness of the lack of clean drinking water in many parts of the world.
Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden highlighted the day this year with two events. Ahead of World Water Day, the Crown Princess, Princess Estelle and Prince Oscar met the organization Wateraid to talk about what life without clean water looks like. The Crown Princess is the patron of Wateraid, which works to improve access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene in the world’s poorest communities.
To illustrate that many people in the world have to find, and fetch water themselves, the Crown Princess, Princess Estelle and Prince Oscar had to try carrying heavy cans filled with water.
On March 22nd 2022, the Crown Princess attended a seminar arranged by the Stockholm International Water Institute. The seminar began with speeches by former recipients of the Stockholm Water Prize Sandra Postel, Sunita Narain and Jon Lane. They highlighted the importance of accessibility to water, and the importance of everyone caring for and protecting the water resources across the planet.
At the end of the seminar, this year’s Stockholm Water Prize Laureate 2022 was announced. This year’s winner is Professor Wilfried Brutsaert, who receives the award for his pioneering work in measuring evaporation and making accurate predictions of the impact of climate change on local precipitation patterns and water resources.
The Crown Princess’ commitment to environmental and climate issues led to the Crown Princess in 2016–2019 acting as one of 17 ambassadors, appointed by the then United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, to work on the global goals for sustainable development. The Crown Princess is now Ambassador emerita for the global goals and continues in that role to focus in particular on sustainability, maritime and fisheries issues.
