World Water Day: The Importance of the World’s Water

Every year on March 22, we celebrate World Water Day (WWD). This is a day that acknowledges the importance of fresh water and raises awareness of the need to take action towards protecting this vital and limited resource. Water is life; people, animals, and plants alike all depend upon water to function—its protection impacts us all. Here in Toronto, a city uniquely enriched with river systems, including the Humber River and Don River, which stream into Lake Ontario, WWD reminds us to pay special attention and safeguard our waterways.

These waterways, a significant part of Canada’s biodiversity, are home to freshwater ecosystems and habitats, including wetlands, caves, swamps, floodplains, rivers, salt pans, estuaries, and lakes.

Did You Know? Canada boasts the most lakes in the world.It’s estimated that there are about 879,800 lakes in Canada, a staggering number that means the country holds 62% of all the lakes in the world or 20% of the world’s surface freshwater.
With such a large supply of such a critical resource, Canada has a big responsibility to protect freshwater ecosystems.

TFN Advocacy Committee.

Toronto Field Naturalists wishes to acknowledge this Land through which we walk. For thousands of years, the Land has been shared by the Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, and the Anishinaabe. Toronto is situated on the Land within the Toronto Purchase, Treaty 13, the traditional and treaty Lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This territory is also part of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum, a covenant agreement between Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Wendat peoples and allied nations to peaceably share the land and all its resources. Today, the Land is home to peoples of numerous nations. We are all grateful to have the opportunity to continue to care for and share the beauty of this Land.