World Rivers Day 2027 is on Sunday

About World Rivers Day

Rivers supply drinking water, irrigate farms, carry fish and wildlife and shape the towns built along them, yet many are dammed, polluted, over-drawn or cut off from the creatures that depend on them. World Rivers Day sets aside one Sunday a year to enjoy local waterways and to do something practical for them, from picking up litter on a riverbank to replanting streamside vegetation or removing barriers that block migrating fish.

The day grew out of BC Rivers Day, which Mark Angelo started in British Columbia, Canada, in 1980. Angelo, a conservationist who has paddled more than a thousand rivers and has been appointed to both the Order of British Columbia and the Order of Canada, proposed a global version in 2005, the year the United Nations launched its Water for Life Decade. According to the organizers, the first World Rivers Day was celebrated in dozens of countries, and in recent years several million people in up to 100 countries have taken part.

The organizers set the date as the fourth Sunday of September. Some calendars list it as the last Sunday of the month, which is the same day in most years but not when September has five Sundays: in 2024, for example, the event fell on September 22, not September 29. World Rivers Day is a volunteer-led event rather than an official UN day, though government agencies and conservation groups in countries such as the UK, Canada, India and Bangladesh use it to promote river projects.

Sources: World Rivers Day: About, Canadian Geographic: Q&A with river conservation leader Mark Angelo (2020), GOV.UK: World Rivers Day 2024, removing fish barriers across the South West. How we check dates.

How to mark World Rivers Day

• Join or organize a cleanup along a local creek or riverbank, staying clear of fast or high water.
• Find out which watershed you live in and where your tap water comes from.
• Take a guided paddle, river walk or fishing outing with a local club or park service.
• Plant native shrubs or trees along a stream to shade the water and hold the bank in place.
• Keep paint, oil, fertilizer and pet waste out of storm drains, which often flow straight to rivers.
• Look up your local river's water quality reports and share them with your neighbors.

World Rivers Day dates