Danube Day 2016: Get active!
Danube Basin, 29 June 2016. Creative events for children, behind-the-scenes tours in water management institutes, field visits in nature reserves: Danube Day reflects the diversity of the Danube River Basin. Join tens of thousands of people in 14 countries to celebrate the biggest river festival in the world.
"Danube Day links the people of the Danube basin with their rivers", said Peter J. Kalas, ICPDR President 2016. "The many participants in the Danube Day celebrations demonstrate how much we need passionate individuals who think global and act local. With growing pressure from Climate Change, creative solutions in water management will become ever more important. The display of creativity shown on Danube Day makes me optimistic - I see many young people enjoying our rivers today to become their guardians tomorrow."
Danube Day, which encourages people throughout the Danube River Basin to “get active” for rivers, lakes and groundwater, is an annual event organised by the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) in partnership with Coca-Cola Hellenic, The Coca-Cola Company and national partners. Danube Day 2016 is organised in a special year for the ICPDR, which marks the adoption of a milestone document that will shape water management in the Danube Basin for the next six years.
“In February this year, the ministers of 14 Danube countries and the European Commission adopted the Danube Declaration", said Ivan Zavadsky, Executive Secretary of the ICPDR. "The aim of this Declaration is to make the Danube cleaner, safer and healthier for everyone to enjoy. Danube Day reminds us that the future of our rivers and lakes is not the responsibility of politicians only, but in our hands. Let us enjoy our rivers and keep up the good work to protect them."
Danube Day has many faces: every country celebrates it through local, often personal ways. Open-air events with music in Serbia, lectures in Romania, social media activities in Austria – the basin’s diversity is reflected in these many and varied events.
Over more than a decade, Danube Day has grown into the biggest river festival in the world since 2004. More then 350 events were held in 2015 with tens of thousands of participants, and Danube Day 2016 will build on this success. Essential for this growth is a fruitful cooperation between the ICPDR and the Coca-Cola system: the Green Danube Partnership. Find more information about local events in your country on www.danubeday.org.
About Danube Day
Danube Day is celebrated on June 29, the signing date of the Danube River Protection Convention, throughout the Danube river basin, to pay tribute to the vital role the Danube and its tributaries play in people’s lives: providing water, food, power, transport, recreation and prosperity; while drawing attention to the importance of conservation. Danube Day was first held in 2004.
