We conservation professionals at the California Institute of Environmental Deign & Management (CIEDM) are supporting and taking part in three water-related awareness campaigns at U.S. and global levels with a local grassroots actions in a single action program, for raising awareness and actions to protect water quality and value. Namely, those campaigns are as follows:
National Water Quality Month (NWQM) throughout August,
World Water Week (WWWeek) on August 23-27, and
The UN World Lake Day (WLD) on the final day of World Water Week. August 27.
The CIEDM action program taken place at the Arcadia Ecohome through the World Water Week 202 are critical at this time when we all experiencing a water crisis at global level in Summer 2026. Recording breaking low water levels at a large number of freshwater bodies have caused various issues such as navigation, power and water supplies. For example, while low summertime water levels are a routine problem for navigation on the River Rhine, especially in recent years, but the intense drought conditions affecting Western Europe have left the waterway all but unnavigable at certain points since July 2026 and thus sending freight rates to record highs. Danube River and Panama Cannel are also examples of encountering severe issues with low water levels. In the US, the low water levels in August at the Colorado River and its two key reservoirs - Lake Mead and Lake Powell - the number 1 and 2 largest reservoirs in the US, all encountering issues with severe water shortage and consequently freshwater and power supply to the arid US Southwest region with major population & employment centers such as Lasa Vegas, Los Angeles and Phoenix, while water & power demands are peaking resulted from prolonged extreme heat since June 2026.
To raise public awareness of the water crisis, our actions taken during this week include the following:
On August 23, the first day of WWWeek 2026, as in past years, I signed up with the Project Clean Water, a Southern California based initiative to raise awareness about protecting our natural water sources and preventing stormwater pollution, for the 52 Ways to Love Your Water campaign and renewed my pledge to take one action each week at the Arcadia Ecohome and its Microforest, as part of CIEDM participation in WQM and WWWeek 2026. I’m pleased and proud of seeing our pledges and the Ecohome being marked on the Love Your Water campaign map.
I’ve engaged in community water quality monitoring for a number of years with the EarthEcho International’s EarthEcho Water Challenge, a global citizen‑science program empowering residents to collect and understand local water data. On August 24, I browsed our past water quality activities partaking in global celebrations of World Water Monitoring Day on September 18 every year, and planned out CIEDM’s water quality monitoring activity for 2026.
The U.S. federal administration announces in August to repeal the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which protects over 58 million acres of undeveloped national forests from road building and industrial development. The Rule protects not only natural forests and wildlife, but also water quality because national forests are important elements of clean water in watersheds. On August 25, I joined American Rivers and Sierra Club with separate actions of sending a message of my position to, respectively, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and USDA’s US Forest Service (USFS), calling not to rescinding #RoadlessRule in National Forests. According to American Rivers and other sources, the Roadless Rule’s rollback would be the largest loss of river protections on Federal lands in U.S. history and threatening the drinking water of 25 million Americans in many parts the country.
On August 26th, for purposes of capacity and network building, I attend a Zoom meeting titled “Water Power Hour: Tools, Stories, and What's Next for Imagine a Day Without Water”. The meeting is a preparatory session for the Day of Action in October. Every October, we join thousands of people and organizations across the US coming together for Imagine a Day Without Water, a National Day of Action dedicated to highlighting the value of water in our daily lives and the systems that deliver it. Organized by the US Water Alliance. For 2026, the national campaign is taken place on October 15. This year, we’re focusing on all the ways water powers our lives, the people who keep it flowing, and how we’re working together to protect our shared water future. Through the webinar, we:
Learn about how the Value of Water campaign is bringing visibility to our nation’s infrastructure, the people who power it, and how Imagine a Day can drive awareness that leads to much needed investment
Get inspired by Imagine a Day Champions during lightning talks with past organizers who drove local impact with water treatment plant tours, creative social media campaigns, community partnerships, and more!
Be explored brand new activation materials released in the 2026 Resource Toolkit
For those interested in taken part in this Imagine a Day Without Water 2026, please check into; https://wkf.ms/3TNDa3e
On August 27, World Lake Day, we are scheduled to engage a cleanup of the Arcadia Ecohome Microforest and the abutting public street to reduce urban runoff pollution to a source-water connected wash located one block from the Microforest and register a local awareness-to-action event to support National Public Lands Day on September 26.
In addition, through the WWWeek, all the above mentioned actions are shared on social media to increase CIEDM effects for outreach, advocacy and raising awareness.
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