It nourishes our food, it sustains our health, and powers our lives. On the UN's World Water Day, it's time to recognize the life-sustaining properties of this precious and endangered resource. Here, a look at humanity's precious relationship to H2O.
(Left) A girl stands surrounded by the jets of a fountain in London's South Bank neighborhood on a hot summer day in July 2013.
A boy swims at the river mouth between the River Drim and Ohrid Lake in Struga, Macedonia, as July temperatures hit 104 degrees in 2011.
A Buddhist novice monk plays during heavy rainfall at Shin Ohtama Tharya monastery in Yangon, Myanmar, in May 2011.
A woman fills her pot with water after pulling it out from an almost dried well in Bhaktapur, Nepal, in April 2013. Nepal has been facing an acute water crisis with a large portion of the Nepalese population lacking access to safe and adequate drinking water, local media reported.
A boy enjoys a water chute in an Aqua arena in Mogyorod, Hungary. July temperatures reached 97 degrees during the summer of 2011 in Budapest.
A Turkana fisherman attempts to climb back up onto his boat after untangling a fishing net from floating weeds on Lake Turkana, near the Ethiopia border in northwestern Kenya in October 2013. The Turkana are traditionally nomadic pastoralists, but they have seen the pasture that they need to feed their herds suffer from recurring droughts and many have turned to fishing.
The colors of fall can be seen reflected in a waterfall along the Blackberry River in Canaan, Conn.
A young girl rids a tricycle under a cascade of water from an open fire hydrant along 151st Street in Manhattan.
An Indian woman carries a bucket filled with drinking water as she walks on dry mud against blowing sand, along the Brahmaputra river on the eve of World Water Day in Gauhati, India. World Water Day is observed annually on March 22 as a means to recognize the global need to save, conserve, and manage water resources for future generations.
A Hindu woman returns after taking a holy bath during the first day of Swasthani Brata Katha festival at Saali River near Kathmandu in January 2012. The monthlong festival, dedicated to God Madhavnarayan and Goddess Swasthani, involves the recitation of folk tales about miraculous feats performed by them in many Hindu households.
A swimmer takes a shower on a beach in the Athens suburb of Alimos.
Yiorgos Karahalis/Reuters
