Water is essential for life. It sustains all living things. Absent water, life ceases. Water is not only one of the most precious but also the most necessary sustainable resources on earth. Taiwan is an island country. Although the annual rainfall in Taiwan reaches 2,500mm which is 2.5 times the world average, because 3/4 of annual rainfall concentrates in the wet season, yet people in Taiwan face water shortages regularly, especially in the dry season. As the nation’s economic activities keep increasing, so does the population. As a result, Taiwan cannot sustain an ever-increasing use of water. It has reached the limits of available water resources. Taiwan now is considered as a country with severe problem encountered with the shortage of water resources. As individuals in Taiwan, people are encouraged to help protecting and conserving their precious water resources. World water monitoring day is a global educational and outreach event designed to promoted personal care and individual involvement in the protection of our world water resources. The event wants to deliver a simple message that it is not only the responsibility of governments to assure clean and safe water for every single adult and child. The efforts for Water Monitoring Day fit Taiwan’s current needs in protecting our precious water sources. As a community on earth, Taiwan EPA broadly inviting school teachers and kits, NGOs and general public to join the WWMD event since 2003. Since 2011 is the year of Taiwan to celebrate her centennial celebration of the founding of the country, the government, Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) of Taiwan, has planned a series of celebrations to welcome this rare and important occasion. We have invited Dr. Helena Alegre, Senior Vice President of International Water Association (IWA), Professor Pen-Chi Chiang, Fellow of Water Environment Federation (WEF), and Ms. Roberta Savage, Founder of WWMD, as our distinguished guests to witness the kick-off event of the 9th World Water Monitoring Day on September 18. There were more than fourteen hundreds of participants including school kids, teachers, adult citizens, NGOs, professionals, and government officials, including Dr. Stephen Shen, Minister of EPA, attending the kick-off event, which was lunched as part of the 100th Anniversary Celebration of the founding of ROC (Taiwan), and to help building public awareness and involvement in protecting water resources around the country.

water quality, water monitoring, World water monitoring day（WWMD）