Events World Water Day 2025

March 22, 2025

A glacial landscape next to a blue logo that reads save our glaciers

The United Nations' 2025 World Water Day theme: "Save our Glaciers."

World Water Day is March 22, 2025

World Water Day is an international observance dedicated to emphasizing the importance of access to freshwater and bringing communities together to create a global awareness campaign. Ever since its initiation by the United Nations (UN) in 1993, World Water Day has constituted a framework for raising awareness for one overarching message: access to water is a fundamental human right. As the public explores this ideology, they are encouraged to take action to create sustainable solutions to the water crisis, such as ensuring equitable access for all individuals, decreasing pollution through alternative and innovative approaches, and promoting global environmental education. 

Each year, World Water Day centers around a different theme or topic that impacts water. This year’s theme is “Save Our Glaciers.” Glaciers are imperative to the stability of many different ecosystems and environments, especially in populated regions. Meltwater from glaciers, for example, provides water for drinking and agriculture, among other things. However, climate change is causing glaciers to melt at a faster pace, causing floods, landslides, and sea level rise that can devastate communities. Furthermore, as the global temperature rises and glaciers shrink, the water cycle becomes more unpredictable, thus threatening water accessibility. 

World Water Day 2025 calls for the implementation of environmental policies to decrease greenhouse gas emissions to slow glacial retreat, improve glacial meltwater filtration and management, and increase efforts to preserve glaciers through authentic scientific communication.

On this page, you will find more information about a project J-WAFS supports that examines the effects of mining and climate change on glaciers in Chile. You will also find a podcast with an MIT professor who studies the behavior of glaciers in response to environmental factors, as well as other research and news on glaciers from outside of MIT.

MIT research on glaciers

Two side-by-side headshots

Using Geographic Information Science to map the intersection of mining, glaciers, and communities

A J-WAFS seed grant project touches on this year’s World Water Day theme of “Save Our Glaciers.”
Curiosity Unbounded podcast cover

Podcast: Curiosity Unbounded, Episode 14 — Putting a glacier in its place

Listen to MIT President Sally Kornbluth and associate professor of Geophysics Brent Minchew discuss glacier-related sea-level rise and potential mitigation solutions.
A circular logo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Glaciology group, which features a glacier, a satellite, and an airplane

MIT Glaciology Group

The interdisciplinary group of researchers study the interactions between the climate, the cryosphere, and the solid earth.
A glacier melting in a body of water

How to save a glacier

Scientists, including MIT geophysics associate professor Brent Minchew, have fascinating ideas to slow sea-level rise caused by melting ice. 

Test your knowledge of glaciers

Lambert Glacier in Antarctica

What is the largest glacier on Earth?

Lambert Glacier in Antarctica is the largest glacier in the world. It is also one of the world’s fastest-moving ice streams—parts of an ice sheet that move faster than the sheet as a whole.
An Individual in a red kayak paddling on a turquoise lake near a towering ice wall with visible layers of sediment

How much of Earth's freshwater is stored in glaciers?

Data from the U.S. Geological Survey notes that approximately three-quarters of Earth's freshwater is stored in glaciers, meaning glaciers are the largest reservoir of freshwater on Earth.
A glacial landscape featuring a partially melted glacier at the base of a rugged mountain range

How much volume did glaciers lose between 2000-2023?

In total, small glaciers (excluding Antarctica and Greenland) lost about 5% of their volume, or 270 billion tonnes of ice. Scientists say this will impact drinking water supplies in South America and Asia, specifically.

And learn more about this year’s World Water Day theme from the United Nations

An illustrated image of a glacier surrounded by mountains and greenery, with a winding blue river flowing from it and bold white text over the illustration reading GLACIER PRESERVATION IS A SURVIVAL STRATEGY

This year's World Water Day theme is "Save our Glaciers"

Learn more about more about why glacier preservation is critical for humans and ecosystems around the globe.