Hanging banners and posters made of environmentally friendly materials, organizing seminars, conferences, symposiums, and art exhibitions are some of the activities being held across Vietnam to celebrate World Water Day 2024, an annual event celebrated on March 22, in which Vietnam aims to highlight the importance of freshwater and support sustainable management of freshwater resources.

Efforts have been directed at building national databases on natural resources and the environment, implementing smart solutions for resource and environmental monitoring, and strengthening and modernizing observation and forecasting systems.

The Phu Ninh Clean Water Plant meets the demand for clean water in the dynamic economic development areas of Vietnam's central province of Quang Nam. Photo: VNA

Trailers and reports on World Water Day were also broadcast to make people aware of the event and water-related issues, and to encourage them to take action to protect and conserve water sources.

The World Water Day was first formally proposed in Agenda 21 of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. In 1993, the first World Water Day was designated by the United Nations General Assembly and each year since then it has focused on a different issue.

 Under the theme "Leveraging Water for Peace," the 2024 event will explore how people can use nature-based solutions to overcome water challenges and the effects of climate change, with an emphasis on unity to promote harmony and the ability to restore water resources around the world, according to Nguyen Minh Khuyen, deputy director of the Department of Water Resources Management under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

"The event provides an opportunity for Vietnam to showcase its role, responsibility and efforts pledged at the 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Dubai last year, in line with the global goal of net zero emissions by 2050," Khuyen said.

He pointed out that Vietnam has 3,450 rivers and streams with a length of 10 kilometers or more. Of these, 405 are inter-provincial rivers and streams, including transboundary rivers. Therefore, Vietnam needs to strengthen cooperation and sharing of transnational water resources in transboundary rivers such as the Mekong River, Red River, Ma River, Sesan River and Sre Pok River.

Khuyen emphasized that Vietnam was the first country in Southeast Asia to join the Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses as its 35th member in early 2014.

Accession to the Convention provides a favorable legal basis for Vietnam to negotiate and sign bilateral and multilateral agreements with countries sharing water resources for cooperation, dispute settlement and management of issues related to international watercourses, especially given Vietnam's dependence on the exploitation, use and protection of water resources from upstream countries.

"Vietnam emphasizes the importance and rapid progress it is making in improving the supply of clean water throughout the country, especially in densely populated areas with ethnic groups and remote communities," Khuyen said.