22. 3. 2026

World Water Day – Alive Rivers, Healthy Future

Access to clean water is essential for health, well‑being and equality

The theme of World Water Day 2026, “Water and Gender”, highlights that access to drinking water is not equal for everyone around the world. Women and girls often bear the greatest burden of collecting water, which affects their time, health, and opportunities for education and employment. Although access to drinking water in Slovenia is taken for granted, it remains important that water resource management includes all stakeholders and promotes equal participation.

The importance of a co‑creative approach

In the LIFE2RIVERS project, river restoration is grounded in co‑creative stewardship that brings together local communities, experts, farmers, landowners, water managers, and civil society organisations. A co‑creative process means shaping solutions together, taking into account local knowledge, natural characteristics, and cultural specificities. This approach ensures that measures are effective and beneficial for the long term.

Why are we restoring rivers?

River restoration is not merely an aesthetic or local intervention. It is about giving space back to nature so that ecosystems can once again function according to their natural dynamics. Through this, we preserve or enhance:

the natural dynamics of river channels,
the functions of floodplains and riparian zones, which act as natural water retention areas,
water quality,
the resilience of the landscape to climate change, droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events,
biodiversity, which enriches local ecosystems and provides essential ecosystem services to society.

Maintaining and restoring rivers is therefore not only an environmental goal, but also a social, cultural, and community responsibility. It ensures that rivers remain a source of life, health, and opportunity for future generations.

International Congress »Življenje rekam«

From 19 to 21 May 2026, the International Congress “Življenje rekam” was held in Ljubljana as part of the LIFE2RIVERS project. The event brought together more than 120 experts from Slovenia and abroad. Over the course of three days, researchers, water managers, representatives of government institutions, local authorities, non-governmental organisations, and international bodies gathered to […]

Healthy Rivers for Healthy Oceans: World Oceans Day Through the Lens of River Basins

Every drop of water that flows through a stream, river, or wetland is part of the same story—a story of water connecting landscapes, ecosystems, and people, from mountain springs to vast deltas and ultimately to the global ocean. On World Oceans Day, we therefore look not only towards the coast, but also upstream, to the […]

World Environment Day: Inspired by Nature. For Climate. For Biodiversity. For Our Future.

Nature has always been our greatest teacher. Within its rhythms lie lessons in balance, adaptation, cooperation, and resilience. As we face increasingly frequent climate extremes, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem degradation, it is becoming ever clearer that nature itself offers many of the solutions we urgently need. Each year, World Environment Day reminds us that a […]