World Water Day on ScienceBlogs and National Geographic

When we think of our planet's water, we usually think of the vast saltwater oceans that contain 97 percent of it. But the other three percent is equally important to ecosystems and to life as we know it: freshwater found above ground in lakes, rivers, and ponds, and underground in aquifers and streams.

World Water Day was designated by the U.N. General Assembly in 1992 to call attention to issues surrounding freshwater around the globe. This year, with the theme "Clean Water for a Healthy World," World Water Day organizers hope to bring the concepts of wastewater management and water pollution into the political conversation about water alongside the issue of availability.

To observe World Water Day here at ScienceBlogs, we've rounded up some of the best posts about freshwater and drinking water from our archives. Check out Revere's collection of posts on water pollution on Effect Measure, Maria Brumm's thoughts on "Peak Water," and the rest below:

• Water pollution posts on Effect Measure
• Have We Really Reached "Peak Water"? on Green Gabbro
• Tap Water is Not a Naturally Occurring Substance on Aardvarchaeology
• Does the Waterdrop Reduce Water Usage? on Guilty Planet
• Mandrake, Have you ever seen a Commie drink a glass of water? on The Island of Doubt
• Clean Water for a Healthy World (World Water Day 2010) on Highly Allochthonous

Our content partners National Geographic have dedicated the entire April issue of National Geographic magazine to the issue of freshwater. And from March 22 to April 2, you can download a special interactive version of the issue for free at www.natgeofreshwater.com.

They call this special issue "an essential primer on the state of the world's freshwater and the global implications as supplies of this finite resource are threatened." In addition to the complete content from the magazine's print edition, this version will contain extra photo galleries, maps and timelines, video profiles of photographers who worked on the issue and more.

Click through to get your free download of "Water: Our Thirsty World."