The importance of safeguarding hydration for healthy ageing

This year’s World Water Day on March 22, 2026, the 34th since the UN observance was officially designated in late 1992, feels more pressing than ever. In January, the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health released a flagship report that declared a new era of global water bankruptcy. This declaration would have been unsurprising to many. Iran is in its sixth year of drought, South Africa’s Western Cape is again facing critically low regional dam levels, and in the UK, southern England has had several water outages since late 2025.