March 14, 2021

International Rivers Day 2021: This year we are celebrating ‘Rights of Rivers. International Day of Action for Rivers is observed every year on March 14. This year, it is the 24th edition of the International Day of Action for Rivers. It is a day dedicated to save, celebrate and make people around us aware about our life-giving source of water. Solidarity is important and people must be committed to river management, across borders, if rivers have to be protected and used for economic purposes. Communities dependent on the rivers for their livelihood, globally, must come together to tell decision makers that rivers matter.

Just as people have their right to freedom, rivers too should have rights. International Day of Action for Rivers 2021 celebrates the ‘Rights of Rivers’. For years, eco-warriors have demanded that rivers be declared a “national asset” and given legal rights. Many rivers around the world, especially in backward countries, have been reduced to sewage canals or choked with toxic industrial pollutants. Often there are encroachments on the flood-plains, which have also become dumping sites. Therefore it’s high time that we unite for the ‘Rights of Rivers’.

“The International Day of Action Against Dams and For Rivers, Water and Life was adopted by the participants of the first International Meeting of People Affected by Dams in March 1997 in Curitiba, Brazil,” according to the internationalrivers.org. River experts from 20 countries decided that March 14 will be the ‘Day of Action for Rivers’. The aim of the participants was to unite against the destruction of rivers, other water bodies and the ecologically fragile watershed areas.

Source: https://www.internationalrivers.org/take-action/international-day-of-action-for-rivers/