World Water Day 2016

This March 22nd, 2016 marks World Water Day. What began at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, and was officially observed the following year, has become a global event aimed at not only getting people to talk about water issues, but elicit action.

In its simplest form, water is the essence of life, present in everything we do. To focus attention on specific aspects of water issues, this year's World Water Day brings us the theme “Water and Jobs,â€ highlighting the importance of water in jobs and how water quantity and quality can change the lives of workers. IntechOpen's past and current contributors Ismail M. M. Rahman, and Mohamed Samer have provided us with some general insight into this important issue:

Ismail Md. Mofizur Rahman, PhD, Fukushima University, Japan

“Water scarcity either due to the physical unavailability of resources or economy-induced shortages have already started to affect populations on every continent. Hence, it is high-time to focus on the prospects or technologies dealing with in order to provide water with minimum wage and simple ways. Water is life, and life should not be compromised for coins.”

Mohamed Samer, Dr. sc. agr., Cairo University, Egypt

“Every living thing is made from water and water is life, in order to provide clean water to the current world population which has reached 7.4 billion living humans, wastewater treatment and seawater desalination are the two main lifelines. These could be achieved by fostering scientific research which develops innovative ideas on how to provide water, i.e. life, to the world population.”IntechOpen joins this global dialogue by providing access to some of the most current information regarding water research, as well as recognizing water availability, quality, and management as perhaps the most critical issues of our era. With over thirty books published, IntechOpen's publications have covered a vast array of topics regarding water related issues.

In 2016, IntechOpen will be adding even more titles covering aspects and topics of water issues, including Wastewater, Water Quality, Groundwater Flow and a second edition to Water Stress. If you are specialist and would like to contribute to Groundwater Flow and Water Stress, please contact: editor@intechopen.com.

Water is life. It is a part of every aspect of our daily lives, whether it is readily available to us or whether we have to walk marathon distances to obtain it.