speech on water day

Speech on World Water Day

World Water Day is a crucial event celebrated globally on March 22nd each year. It’s a day to recognize the importance of freshwater for all life on Earth.

You might already know, water is vital for survival, not just for humans but for every living creature. But sadly, many places still lack access to clean and safe water. World Water Day aims to raise awareness about this pressing issue.

1-minute Speech on World Water Day

Good day, everyone! Today, I want to talk about an important day, World Water Day. This day comes every year on March 22nd. We celebrate it to remind everyone about the importance of water.

But, not everyone in the world is lucky to have clean water. Many people have to walk miles to get water. Some people have to drink dirty water because they have no other choice. This is not fair. Everyone should have clean water, just like we do.

World Water Day is a day to think about these people. It’s a day to remember that water is not just about quenching thirst, it’s about justice. It means giving every person their right to clean water.

Each one of us can help. We can save water by turning off the tap when we brush our teeth. We can tell our friends about the importance of water. We can help charities that work for clean water.

World Water Day is not just a day, it’s a call to action. It’s a reminder that water is precious and everyone deserves it. Let’s promise today to value water and work towards a world where everyone has clean water to drink. Thank you!

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2-minute Speech on World Water Day

Friends, today we gather to talk about an important day – World Water Day. It happens every year on March 22. This day reminds us how valuable water is.

Water is life. It’s as simple as that. We humans, animals, plants – we all need it to stay alive. When we wake up, we brush our teeth with water. We cook our food using water. We wash our clothes with water. We can’t imagine a day without it.

World Water Day is also about taking care of our water. Sometimes, we waste water. We leave the tap open while brushing, or we use too much water while washing our car. It’s not right. Every drop of water counts. We need to save water, not waste it.

And there’s more. Sometimes, water gets dirty. Factories throw waste into rivers, and it makes the water unhealthy. We cannot drink it or use it anymore. It’s a big problem. World Water Day wants us to pay attention to this problem. We need to keep our water clean.

For World Water Day, we can all do something. We can talk to our friends about the importance of water. We can teach them how to save water. We can also learn more about the people who don’t have enough water. Maybe, we can find ways to help them.

Remember, every little action counts. You, me, all of us can make a difference. We can make sure that everyone has enough clean water. We can protect our water for the future.

So, let’s celebrate World Water Day. Let’s appreciate the water we have. Let’s save water. Let’s keep it clean. And let’s make sure everyone has water. Because water is life, and everyone deserves to have it. Thank you.

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World Water Day

World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. It is about taking action to tackle the global water crisis, in support of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.

A new World Water Development Report is released each year on or near World Water Day, to provide decision-makers with tools to formulate and implement sustainable water policies. This report is coordinated by UNESCO’s World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) on behalf of UN-Water. The annual theme for World Water Day is aligned with the focus of the report. UNESCO also contributes to the observance of the Day through its Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP), which works all year long to build the scientific knowledge base to help countries manage their water resources in a sustainable way.

Official UN celebration at UNESCO Headquarters

Launch of the United Nations World Water Development Report 2024

On this occasion, UNESCO wishes to recall the importance of dialogue and cooperation in the field of water, whether surface or groundwater, liquid or frozen. This international cooperation is not only desirable, but essential, when over 40% of the world’s population lives in transboundary river basins, which account for almost 60% of the world’s freshwater resources.

What UNESCO does for water security

UN World Water Development Report

A new World Water Development Report is released each year on or near World Water Day, to provide decision-makers with tools to formulate and implement sustainable water policies. This report is coordinated by UNESCO’s World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) on behalf of UN-Water.

The annual theme for World Water Day is aligned with the focus of the report. UNESCO also contributes to the observance of the Day through its Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP), which works all year long to build the scientific knowledge base to help countries manage their water resources in a sustainable way.

Water for Prosperity and Peace (2024)

The 2024 United Nations World Water Development Report (UN WWDR) shows how developing and maintaining a secure and equitable water future underpins prosperity and peace for all, and how poverty and inequality, social tensions, and conflict can amplify water insecurity.

It calls attention to the complex and interlinked relationships between sustainable water management, prosperity and peace, describing how progress in one dimension can have positive, often essential, repercussions on the others. 

It will be launched at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 22 March 2024. The launch is organized by UNESCO and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the co-chairs of the World Water Day 2024 campaign, on behalf of UN-Water.

Key messages

is undermining progress on all major global issues, from health to hunger, gender equality to jobs, education to industry, disasters to peace.

businesses, healthcare centres, farms and factories are being held back today because their human rights to water and sanitation have not yet been fulfilled.

on average, to meet SDG 6 by 2030. However governments cannot solve this on their own.

so everyone needs to take action.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution  A/RES/47/193  of 22 December 1992 by which 22 March of each year was declared World Day for Water, to be observed starting in 1993. States were invited to devote the Day, as appropriate in the national context, to concrete activities such as the promotion of public awareness through the publication and diffusion of documentaries and the organization of conferences, round tables, seminars and expositions related to the conservation and development of water resources.

World Water Day 2023 campaign launches

The World Water Day 2023 campaign is now live. This year, the focus of the UN observance is on accelerating change to solve the water and sanitation crisis. 

The global campaign, called Be the change , encourages people to take action in their own lives to change the way they use, consume and manage water.  

The promises made by individuals on the campaign website will contribute to the Water Action Agenda - a main outcome of the UN 2023 Water Conference, which opens on World Water Day, 22 March 2023. 

The Water Action Agenda is a collection of voluntary commitments from governments, companies, organizations, institutions, coalitions and members of the public, designed to deliver rapid progress on internationally-agreed water and sanitation targets, most notably Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6): water and sanitation for all by 2030.  

Currently, the world is seriously off track on SDG 6. The latest data show that governments must work on average four times faster to meet this Goal on time. 

Dysfunction throughout the water cycle is undermining progress on all major global issues, from health to hunger, gender equality to jobs, education to industry, disasters to peace.  

Rapid, transformative change is needed and everyone can play their part. Every action – no matter how small – will make a difference. 

• To find out more about World Water Day 2023, click here . 
• To make your own Water Action list, click here . 
• To check out the Lazy Person’s Guide to Saving Water, click here .
• To find more simple #WaterActions you can take, click here .

For media and interview requests, contact us on: [email protected] mentioning [Media request] in the subject heading.

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World Water Day 2022

22 Mar 2022

As we celebrate World Water Day under the theme, “Groundwater: Making the invisible visible”, we must draw our attention to the nature of groundwater, and to the human-induced actions that contribute to its quality and quantity.

Groundwater makes up as much as 33% of global water withdrawals.

More than 2 billion people count on groundwater as their main source of water.

And 50% of water for agricultural irrigation is pumped from aquifers.

Scientific studies show that many of the world’s major aquifers are being depleted, resulting in decreased water flows, drying of springs and wetlands, and the loss of vegetation and land subsidence.

Overuse, urbanization, and contamination from human activities are threatening groundwater viability, leading to economic troubles, public health ills, and even water conflict.

As the human race grows, we need a better understanding of our groundwater systems, and a more thoughtful approach to managing them.

After all, we cannot infinitely mine a resource that is finite.

On this day, let us think about something most of us take for granted, and yet, something on which our very lives depend upon.

Let us recognize that achieving the SDGs, realizing human rights, and ensuring peace and security, all hinge upon water for all.

We must work together, within our communities and across borders, to manage water resources.

Considering that the world is increasingly urban, the upcoming High-Level Meeting on a New Urban Agenda offers us an opportunity to reflect on this important issue.

Going forward, we must transform our consumption patterns for the sustainability and conservation of groundwater.

We must pursue sustainable methods in irrigation, in water utilization, and in the disposal of harmful products.

We must also work towards systems that help recharge ground aquifers, and strengthen water harvesting, water reuse and smart water pricing.

By committing to these actions, we can secure the preservation of this finite natural resource.

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The un secretary-general message on world water day.

This year’s World Water Day, with the theme “Valuing water”, asks: What does water mean to me? 

The value of water is profound and complex.  There is no aspect of sustainable development that does not fundamentally rely upon it.

For me, water means protection. A well-managed water cycle – encompassing drinking water, sanitation, hygiene, wastewater, transboundary governance, the environment and more – means a defence against ill-health and indignity and a response to challenges from a changing climate and increasing global demand.

This World Water Day, we want to record and understand as many views as possible, so decision-makers are better informed and equipped to safeguard this human right for every person and every purpose.

Today, we are not on track to ensure everyone has access to water and sanitation by 2030, as set out in Sustainable Development Goal 6. While advances being made, current progress needs to quadruple to achieve universal access. 

Chronic under-investment in water and sanitation disadvantages and harms vast numbers of people. This is unacceptable. 

I am encouraged by the joint statement signed by some 160 countries during the UN High-Level meeting on water on 18 March. This shows a strong commitment to advancing all water-related aspects of the Sustainable Development Goals.

On this World Water Day, let us commit to intensifying efforts to truly valuing water so all may have equitable access to this most precious resource. 

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World Water Day Speech in English- Check Out 10 Lines, Short & Long Speech!

World Water Day Speech: World Water Day is an annual observance that is celebrated on March 22nd every year to raise awareness about the importance of freshwater and the need to manage it sustainably. Water is an essential resource for all living organisms, and its availability is critical for human well-being, economic development, and the environment. However, the world is facing an unprecedented water crisis, with millions of people lacking access to safe drinking water and sanitation, and many countries struggling to cope with water scarcity, pollution, and climate change. On this World Water Day, it is essential to reflect on the current state of the world’s water resources, the challenges we face, and the actions we can take to ensure a sustainable water future for all.

Table of Contents

10 Lines on World Water Day Speech in English

Short world water day speech in english, long world water day speech in english, faqs related to the world water day speech in english.

• Good morning/afternoon, everyone. Today, we gather here to observe World Water Day, a day that reminds us of the significance of water in our lives.
• Water is an essential resource for all living beings, and it is our responsibility to use it wisely and sustainably.
• This year’s theme for World Water Day is “Valuing Water,” which highlights the importance of water as a precious resource that needs to be appreciated and conserved.
• Water scarcity is a pressing issue in many parts of the world, with millions of people lacking access to clean and safe drinking water.
• Climate change is exacerbating the water crisis, leading to droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events.
• We need to take collective action to address the water crisis and ensure a sustainable water future for all.
• This requires us to rethink the way we use water, adopt water-efficient practices, and invest in water infrastructure and technology.
• We also need to raise awareness about the importance of water conservation and educate people on how to use water sustainably.
• As individuals, we can all make a difference by reducing our water usage, fixing leaks, and adopting water-saving habits.
• Let us pledge to take action and work towards a water-secure future for ourselves and future generations. Thank you.

Good morning/afternoon, everyone. Today, we gather here to observe World Water Day, a day that reminds us of the significance of water in our lives. Water is an essential resource for all living beings, and it is our responsibility to use it wisely and sustainably.

This year’s theme for World Water Day is “Valuing Water,” which highlights the importance of water as a precious resource that needs to be appreciated and conserved. Water scarcity is a pressing issue in many parts of the world, with millions of people lacking access to clean and safe drinking water. Climate change is exacerbating the water crisis, leading to droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events.

As we celebrate World Water Day, let us pledge to take action and work towards a water-secure future for ourselves and future generations. This requires us to rethink the way we use water, adopt water-efficient practices, and invest in water infrastructure and technology. We also need to raise awareness about the importance of water conservation and educate people on how to use water sustainably.

As individuals, we can all make a difference by reducing our water usage, fixing leaks, and adopting water-saving habits. Let us take the initiative to conserve water in our homes, workplaces, and communities.

In conclusion, on this World Water Day, let us appreciate the value of water and work together to ensure a sustainable water future for all. Thank you.

Also, Read world water day theme 2023 !

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you all to this year’s World Water Day event. Water is one of the most valuable resources on the planet, and it is our responsibility to use it wisely and sustainably. The theme for this year’s event is “Valuing Water,” which highlights the importance of water as a precious resource that needs to be appreciated and conserved.

As we all know, water scarcity is a pressing issue in many parts of the world. Millions of people lack access to clean and safe drinking water, and this has severe consequences for their health, education, and economic opportunities. The effects of climate change are exacerbating the water crisis, leading to droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events. We must take urgent action to address this issue and ensure a sustainable water future for all.

Governments, organizations, and individuals all have a role to play in conserving water. Governments must prioritize water management and invest in infrastructure, technology, and policies that promote water conservation. Organizations can adopt sustainable water practices in their operations and supply chains. And as individuals, we can all make a difference by reducing our water usage, fixing leaks, and adopting water-saving habits.

Education and awareness are also crucial in addressing the water crisis. We need to raise awareness about the importance of water conservation and educate people on how to use water sustainably. Children must be taught from an early age about the importance of water and the need to conserve it. Community outreach programs, awareness campaigns, and partnerships with civil society organizations can help to promote water literacy and encourage sustainable behavior.

In conclusion, on this World Water Day, let us appreciate the value of water and work together to ensure a sustainable water future for all. We must all do our part to conserve water and promote water sustainability in our homes, workplaces, and communities. Thank you for joining us in this important event, and let us take action to protect and conserve this precious resource.

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FACT SHEET: On World Water Day, Biden- ⁠ Harris Administration Builds on Historic Progress to Protect Clean Drinking Water, Restore Our Nation’s Rivers, Lakes, Ponds, and   Wetlands

President Biden and Vice President Harris believe that every person should have access to clean drinking water and a healthy environment. On World Water Day, the Biden-Harris Administration is building on historic progress to secure clean water for all by announcing new actions to protect our vital freshwater resources and ensure every community can count on clean water when they turn on the faucet. Rivers, lakes, wetlands, and other freshwater resources are fundamental to the health, prosperity, and resiliency of the nation, and sacred to many Tribes. Through the  America the Beautiful Initiative  and the global  Freshwater Challenge , the Biden-Harris Administration is delivering on the first-ever national conservation goal to protect at least 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030 – accelerating locally-led efforts to tackle the world’s intertwined water, climate, and nature crises. To ensure that clean water reaches communities across the country, the Biden-Harris Administration is harnessing historic resources from the President’s Investing in America agenda to replace lead pipes and other drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, build resilience to drought, and conserve and restore our rivers, wetlands, lakes, and ponds. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law alone includes more than $50 billion to help ensure every community has access to clean water. While the Biden-Harris Administration delivers on  a national commitment to protect clean water , this week Congressional Republicans are  continuing attempts  to weaken the Clean Water Act. These attacks are part of a decades-long effort to undermine Clean Water Act safeguards, which culminated in the U.S. Supreme Court’s  Sackett  decision last year – one of the largest judicial rollbacks of environmental protections in U.S. history. A  report  released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today reveals that from 2009-2019, the wetlands loss rate increased 50 percent over the prior decade, further showing the urgent need to use all the tools and resources available at the national, State, Tribal, and local level to protect and conserve America’s waters. This World Water Day, the Biden-Harris Administration is announcing new actions and resources to advance the most ambitious clean water agenda in history:

• The Army Corps of Engineers is releasing  a new memorandum outlining ways it will support the protection, restoration, and enhancement of waters and wetlands  that are more vulnerable following the U.S. Supreme Court’s  Sackett  decision.  
• The White House Council on Environmental Quality is  releasing a   Wetland and Water Protection Resource Guide  for Tribes, States, Territories, local governments, private land owners, and non-governmental organizations to advance water resource protection. The Resource Guide highlights technical assistance and funding opportunities available across the federal government.  
• NOAA is announcing  $60 million from the President’s Investing in America agenda   for fish hatcheries  to produce salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River Basin. This builds on a historic agreement the Biden-Harris Administration secured in partnership with Tribes and States in the Pacific Northwest to restore wild salmon and steelhead populations.  
• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released the  Understanding Water Affordability Across Contexts, LIHWAP Water Utility Affordability Survey Report ,  which highlights the differences in water affordability across the country.  President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget provides $4.1 billion for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), helping families access home energy and weatherization assistance, and proposes to allow States the option to use a portion of those funds to provide water bill assistance to low-income households.

Today’s announcements build on a series of landmark investments and actions the Biden-Harris Administration has taken to protect and restore the nation’s freshwater resources by advancing conservation, building resilience, and expanding access to clean drinking water. Protecting more than 26 million acres of lands and waters, putting President Biden on track to conserve more lands and waters than any President in history . Highlights of the Biden-Harris Administration’s water conservation accomplishments, driven by the America the Beautiful Initiative, include:

• Safeguarding the Colorado River watershed by creating  the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument , protecting nearly one million acres of greater Grand Canyon landscape. President Biden’s designation honors Tribal Nations and Indigenous Peoples by protecting sacred ancestral places and their historically and scientifically important features, while conserving our public lands, protecting wildlife habitat and clean water, and supporting local economies. President Biden has also designated additional national monuments that protect freshwater resources, including the freshwater springs of Castner Range National Monument and the high alpine lakes of Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument.  
• Protecting the  Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness  and surrounding watershed from mining , which would have harmed the area’s watershed, fish and wildlife, Tribal and treaty rights, and outdoor recreation economy. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is a spectacular network of rivers, lakes, and forests in northeastern Minnesota that comprise the most heavily visited wilderness area in the United States. By withdrawing these lands from future mineral leasing, the Biden-Harris Administration is keeping the iconic area intact for future generations.  
• Addressing threats to  Alaska’s Bristol Bay , the most productive wild salmon ecosystem in the world   and home to 25 Tribal Nations.  Six rivers meet in Bristol Bay, traveling through 40,000 miles of tundra, wetlands, and lakes. EPA acted to help protect these waters and the communities dependent upon them from contamination associated with developing the Pebble Mine.  
• Tackling  transboundary water pollution in the Elk-Kootenai watershed  to protect the people and species that depend on this vital river system . For over a decade, the Tribal Nations and Indigenous Peoples within the Elk-Kootenai watershed have requested that the U.S. and Canadian governments address pollution that has impaired downstream communities, fish populations, and ecosystems. Under President Biden’s leadership, the U.S. and Canadian governments have taken a key step with Ktunaxa Nation to achieve transboundary cooperation to protect clean water.  
• Restoring the flow of rivers and streams by  investing $1 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law  to remove, repair, and redesign infrastructure that impede water flow. The first round of grants will fix or remove almost 170 fish culverts and improve approximately 550 miles of stream habitat across the country – with a total of $196 million awarded to Tribal, state, and local governments. Reconnecting these waterways reconnects communities to their rivers, increases ecological functions of the rivers and streams, and ensures that goods – traveling along these rural roads from farms to urban areas – make their way to market.

Making unprecedented investments and leading collaborative efforts to increase the resilience of our water ecosystems.  Highlights of the Biden-Harris Administration’s work to build the resilience of our communities and waters include:

• Delivering the  largest single federal investment in the Everglades   through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.  Years of human development have isolated portions of the Florida Everglades and altered natural flow patterns for freshwater, and the Everglades are already feeling the impacts of climate change and sea level rise. The Army Corps of Engineers has invested $1.1 billion through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to help restore the ecosystems and water flows of the Everglades’ two million acres of wetlands. Thriving wetlands will also filter out pollution to improve water quality for the one-third of Floridians who rely on the Everglades for drinking water, and will help improve resilience to flooding that impacts the state.  In addition, this month the Department of the Interior established the Everglades to Gulf Conservation Area, a four-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge, where tools like voluntary conservation easements can be used to protect wildlife corridors, enhance outdoor recreation access, and bolster climate resilience.  
• Leading a comprehensive effort to  make Western communities more resilient to climate change and ongoing megadrought  by harnessing the full resources of President Biden’s historic Investing in America agenda. As climate change has accelerated over the past two decades, the Colorado River Basin experienced the driest period in the region in over one thousand years. Together, the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provide the largest investment in climate resilience in our nation’s history, including $15.4 billion for western water to enhance the West’s resilience to drought and deliver unprecedented resources to protect the Colorado River System for all whose lives and livelihoods depend on it. Following extensive engagement with States, Tribes, and water users, the Administration announced a historic agreement to conserve at least 3 million-acre-feet of water in the Colorado River Basin through the end of 2026.  
• Restoring wild salmon, steelhead and other native fish, in the  Columbia River Basin . Building on President Biden’s direction to Federal agencies, the Biden-Harris Administration announced a historic agreement to work in partnership with Pacific Northwest Tribes and States to restore wild salmon populations, facilitate the development of Tribally sponsored clean energy production, and provide stability for communities that depend on the Columbia River System. The Administration committed more than $1 billion to the effort, which will, among other things, be used to restore freshwater habitat.  
• Restoring  the  Klamath River Basin  ecosystem and building drought resilience.  With the removal of four dams underway, the Klamath Basin Drought Resilience Keystone Initiative is reestablishing wetlands and their functions, and advancing post-fire restoration efforts. The Department of the Interior, working in a whole of government approach, has leveraged funding from additional federal agencies as well as from Tribal, state, and other partners to restore the ecological function of the river and its associated river systems. The dam removals alone will open access to more than 400 miles of habitat for salmon and steelhead trout, help restore Tribal food sovereignty, and improve the health and water quality of the river.  
• Providing   rapid-response American expertise to international partners  on critical water and climate adaptation challenges.  Through the Ambassador’s Water Experts Program (AWEP), the Department of State and the Department of the Interior have deployed over 30 U.S. experts to support more than 20 technical and capacity building engagements since 2019, and already have six AWEP engagements underway in 2024. AWEP works through U.S. diplomatic posts to respond to time sensitive requests for support on a broad range of water and climate resilience topics and promotes long-term collaboration on water security.  
• Strengthening  data for decision-making and early warning systems  to protect communities worldwide.  The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and USAID are working with over 50 countries in Asia, Africa, and the Americas through the SERVIR Initiative, which uses satellite data to address critical challenges in food security, water resources, weather and climate, land use, and water-related disasters. NASA is also working with the U.S. Department of State to provide advanced remote-sensing, modeling, and capacity building activities through the Strategic Hydrologic and Agricultural Remote-sensing for Environments Program, which brings data and technical resources to end-users in some of the most complex hydrologic domains in the world. These efforts are supported by the launch of NASA’s  Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT)  mission, a new satellite that will establish the first-ever global survey of Earth’s surface water. This innovation will improve our understanding of how water bodies change over time and will aid in freshwater management around the world.

Expanding access to clean drinking water and wastewater by investing more than $50 billion from the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – the largest investment in clean water in American history.  Highlights of this effort and other steps to address water pollution include:

• Removing all lead service lines .  Over 9 million homes, schools, and businesses receive their drinking water through a lead pipe. Exposure to lead can cause irreversible brain damage in children, even knocking off several IQ points. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes a historic $15 billion in dedicated funding for lead pipe replacement, in support of President Biden’s goal of replacing all lead pipes within a decade.
• Combatting toxic  “forever chemicals”  in drinking water and wastewater.  The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invests $10 billion to address harmful PFAS pollution in drinking water and wastewater. EPA has also proposed the first-ever national standard to address these “forever chemicals” in drinking water. This builds on President Biden’s action plan to combat PFAS pollution, safeguarding public health and advancing environmental justice.
• Ensuring  no community is left behind .  Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, nearly half of these clean drinking water and wastewater investments will be provided as grants or forgivable loans to disadvantaged communities, advancing President Biden’s  Justice40 Initiative . In addition, EPA has launched several initiatives to partner with underserved communities nationwide to provide the support and technical assistance they need to access clean water funding. EPA will partner with 200 communities to help them replace lead pipes, while the initiative will help an additional 150 communities execute wastewater and sanitation projects. For example, in Lowndes County, Alabama, roughly 90 percent of households have failing wastewater systems and many children and families are exposed to raw sewage in their own backyards. EPA and USDA have worked with the Lowndes County community of White Hall to secure over $500,000 in federal funding for wastewater projects. In nearby Hayneville, EPA has awarded a 100% forgivable $8.7 million loan to address failing or non-existent wastewater systems in 650 homes.  
• Investing more than $1 billion to  restore the Great Lakes ,  a vital economic engine that supplies drinking water for more than 20 million Americans, supports more than 1.3 million jobs, and sustains life for thousands of species. With the largest investment in the Great Lakes in two decades through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, EPA is cleaning up and restoring the Great Lakes’ most environmentally degraded sites, including the Milwaukee Estuary in Wisconsin and the Cuyahoga River in Ohio.  
• Delivering  clean water to Tribal Nations .  For years, Tribal Nations have been left without access to safe, clean water for drinking and sanitation; today, approximately 48% of Tribal communities go without this human right. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has delivered $4.2 billion to date to provide safe, clean water for Tribal Nations and secure historic Tribal water rights. This includes over $8 million to remediate arsenic contamination that has been in the Hopi Tribe’s water supply since the 1960s. The Hopi Arsenic Management Project will make necessary infrastructure improvements to provide clean drinking water to over 5,000 people.  
• Increasing access to safe and sustainable drinking water and sanitation services  around the world .  The U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) recent annual report shows that since the passage of the Water for the World Act ten years ago, USAID’s water, sanitation, and hygiene investments have resulted in more than 42 million people gaining access to sustainable drinking water and 38 million gaining access to sustainable sanitation services. With a focus on climate resilience, inclusivity and gender equality, locally-led development, and private-sector engagement, these investments are contributing to progress toward UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 to achieve universal access to clean water and sanitation. 

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World Water Day Speech/Essay for School Kids

In the year 1992, in the United Nations General assembly adopted 22nd March as a World Water Day. Since 1993 every year 22nd March is celebrated as World Water Day. The main aim of celebrating this day was to create public awareness about the importance of water and how it is necessary to preserve fresh water for a sustainable future. And if you preparing for some exam, then this can also come as a question, although I would also recommend you to try out ExamCollection to help you out with your. next exam with ease.

The basic need of human being is food, water and shelter without which there is no life. Due to the increasing population the need for drinking water is also increasing. There are places in this world, where easy access to drinking water is very difficult and people suffer because of it. Due to the rising problems of global warming, we cannot depend only on earth’s natural water resources. Hence, it is important to use water carefully and implement personal habits that help in saving water at individual level such as at home, schools, offices, public places and so on.

We as students, are capable to make a change in society and create a healthy and sustainable environment for future. Today on this special occasion let us all join hands in preserving one of the most precious resources of our planet; water. Let us encourage water conservation techniques like rain water harvesting and water recycling for sanitation and gardening. We must take an oath to never waste water at our home, schools and public places and use water wisely. We must all stand against those who use fresh water bodies as a dumping ground for waste.

Water is a vital element in every aspect of development: for better production, better nutrition, better environment, and better life. Let us lead by good examples and good demonstrations. Let us value every drop of water and keep our planet blue and clean. Let’s make everyday World Water Day and strive to make this world a better place to live.

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“This is Water”

This speech was originally delivered by David Foster Wallace as the 2005 commencement address at Kenyon College. 1

Speech Transcript

Greetings parents and congratulations to Kenyon’s graduating class of 2005. There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?”

This is a standard requirement of US commencement speeches, the deployment of didactic little parable-ish stories. The story thing turns out to be one of the better, less bullshitty conventions of the genre, but if you’re worried that I plan to present myself here as the wise, older fish explaining what water is to you younger fish, please don’t be. I am not the wise old fish. The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about. Stated as an English sentence, of course, this is just a banal platitude, but the fact is that in the day to day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have a life or death importance, or so I wish to suggest to you on this dry and lovely morning.

Of course the main requirement of speeches like this is that I’m supposed to talk about your liberal arts education’s meaning, to try to explain why the degree you are about to receive has actual human value instead of just a material payoff. So let’s talk about the single most pervasive cliché in the commencement speech genre, which is that a liberal arts education is not so much about filling you up with knowledge as it is about “teaching you how to think.” If you’re like me as a student, you’ve never liked hearing this, and you tend to feel a bit insulted by the claim that you needed anybody to teach you how to think, since the fact that you even got admitted to a college this good seems like proof that you already know how to think. But I’m going to posit to you that the liberal arts cliché turns out not to be insulting at all, because the really significant education in thinking that we’re supposed to get in a place like this isn’t really about the capacity to think, but rather about the choice of what to think about. If your total freedom of choice regarding what to think about seems too obvious to waste time discussing, I’d ask you to think about fish and water, and to bracket for just a few minutes your scepticism about the value of the totally obvious.

Here’s another didactic little story. There are these two guys sitting together in a bar in the remote Alaskan wilderness. One of the guys is religious, the other is an atheist, and the two are arguing about the existence of God with that special intensity that comes after about the fourth beer. And the atheist says: “Look, it’s not like I don’t have actual reasons for not believing in God. It’s not like I haven’t ever experimented with the whole God and prayer thing. Just last month I got caught away from the camp in that terrible blizzard, and I was totally lost and I couldn’t see a thing, and it was 50 below, and so I tried it: I fell to my knees in the snow and cried out ‘Oh, God, if there is a God, I’m lost in this blizzard, and I’m gonna die if you don’t help me.’” And now, in the bar, the religious guy looks at the atheist all puzzled. “Well then you must believe now,” he says, “After all, here you are, alive.” The atheist just rolls his eyes. “No, man, all that was was a couple Eskimos happened to come wandering by and showed me the way back to camp.”

It’s easy to run this story through kind of a standard liberal arts analysis: the exact same experience can mean two totally different things to two different people, given those people’s two different belief templates and two different ways of constructing meaning from experience. Because we prize tolerance and diversity of belief, nowhere in our liberal arts analysis do we want to claim that one guy’s interpretation is true and the other guy’s is false or bad. Which is fine, except we also never end up talking about just where these individual templates and beliefs come from. Meaning, where they come from INSIDE the two guys. As if a person’s most basic orientation toward the world, and the meaning of his experience were somehow just hard-wired, like height or shoe-size; or automatically absorbed from the culture, like language. As if how we construct meaning were not actually a matter of personal, intentional choice. Plus, there’s the whole matter of arrogance. The nonreligious guy is so totally certain in his dismissal of the possibility that the passing Eskimos had anything to do with his prayer for help. True, there are plenty of religious people who seem arrogant and certain of their own interpretations, too. They’re probably even more repulsive than atheists, at least to most of us. But religious dogmatists’ problem is exactly the same as the story’s unbeliever: blind certainty, a close-mindedness that amounts to an imprisonment so total that the prisoner doesn’t even know he’s locked up.

The point here is that I think this is one part of what teaching me how to think is really supposed to mean. To be just a little less arrogant. To have just a little critical awareness about myself and my certainties. Because a huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded. I have learned this the hard way, as I predict you graduates will, too.

Here is just one example of the total wrongness of something I tend to be automatically sure of: everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute centre of the universe; the realest, most vivid and important person in existence. We rarely think about this sort of natural, basic self-centredness because it’s so socially repulsive. But it’s pretty much the same for all of us. It is our default setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth. Think about it: there is no experience you have had that you are not the absolute centre of. The world as you experience it is there in front of YOU or behind YOU, to the left or right of YOU, on YOUR TV or YOUR monitor. And so on. Other people’s thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real.

Please don’t worry that I’m getting ready to lecture you about compassion or other-directedness or all the so-called virtues. This is not a matter of virtue. It’s a matter of my choosing to do the work of somehow altering or getting free of my natural, hard-wired default setting which is to be deeply and literally self-centered and to see and interpret everything through this lens of self. People who can adjust their natural default setting this way are often described as being “well-adjusted”, which I suggest to you is not an accidental term.

Given the triumphant academic setting here, an obvious question is how much of this work of adjusting our default setting involves actual knowledge or intellect. This question gets very tricky. Probably the most dangerous thing about an academic education–least in my own case–is that it enables my tendency to over-intellectualise stuff, to get lost in abstract argument inside my head, instead of simply paying attention to what is going on right in front of me, paying attention to what is going on inside me.

As I’m sure you guys know by now, it is extremely difficult to stay alert and attentive, instead of getting hypnotised by the constant monologue inside your own head (may be happening right now). Twenty years after my own graduation, I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about teaching you how to think is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed. Think of the old cliché about “the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master.”

This, like many clichés, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth. It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head. They shoot the terrible master. And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger.

And I submit that this is what the real, no bullshit value of your liberal arts education is supposed to be about: how to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head and to your natural default setting of being uniquely, completely, imperially alone day in and day out. That may sound like hyperbole, or abstract nonsense. Let’s get concrete. The plain fact is that you graduating seniors do not yet have any clue what “day in day out” really means. There happen to be whole, large parts of adult American life that nobody talks about in commencement speeches. One such part involves boredom, routine and petty frustration. The parents and older folks here will know all too well what I’m talking about.

By way of example, let’s say it’s an average adult day, and you get up in the morning, go to your challenging, white-collar, college-graduate job, and you work hard for eight or ten hours, and at the end of the day you’re tired and somewhat stressed and all you want is to go home and have a good supper and maybe unwind for an hour, and then hit the sack early because, of course, you have to get up the next day and do it all again. But then you remember there’s no food at home. You haven’t had time to shop this week because of your challenging job, and so now after work you have to get in your car and drive to the supermarket. It’s the end of the work day and the traffic is apt to be: very bad. So getting to the store takes way longer than it should, and when you finally get there, the supermarket is very crowded, because of course it’s the time of day when all the other people with jobs also try to squeeze in some grocery shopping. And the store is hideously lit and infused with soul-killing muzak or corporate pop and it’s pretty much the last place you want to be but you can’t just get in and quickly out; you have to wander all over the huge, over-lit store’s confusing aisles to find the stuff you want and you have to manoeuvre your junky cart through all these other tired, hurried people with carts (et cetera, et cetera, cutting stuff out because this is a long ceremony) and eventually you get all your supper supplies, except now it turns out there aren’t enough check-out lanes open even though it’s the end-of-the-day rush. So the checkout line is incredibly long, which is stupid and infuriating. But you can’t take your frustration out on the frantic lady working the register, who is overworked at a job whose daily tedium and meaninglessness surpasses the imagination of any of us here at a prestigious college.

But anyway, you finally get to the checkout line’s front, and you pay for your food, and you get told to “Have a nice day” in a voice that is the absolute voice of death. Then you have to take your creepy, flimsy, plastic bags of groceries in your cart with the one crazy wheel that pulls maddeningly to the left, all the way out through the crowded, bumpy, littery parking lot, and then you have to drive all the way home through slow, heavy, SUV-intensive, rush-hour traffic, et cetera et cetera.

Everyone here has done this, of course. But it hasn’t yet been part of you graduates’ actual life routine, day after week after month after year.

But it will be. And many more dreary, annoying, seemingly meaningless routines besides. But that is not the point. The point is that petty, frustrating crap like this is exactly where the work of choosing is gonna come in. Because the traffic jams and crowded aisles and long checkout lines give me time to think, and if I don’t make a conscious decision about how to think and what to pay attention to, I’m gonna be pissed and miserable every time I have to shop. Because my natural default setting is the certainty that situations like this are really all about me. About MY hungriness and MY fatigue and MY desire to just get home, and it’s going to seem for all the world like everybody else is just in my way. And who are all these people in my way? And look at how repulsive most of them are, and how stupid and cow-like and dead-eyed and nonhuman they seem in the checkout line, or at how annoying and rude it is that people are talking loudly on cell phones in the middle of the line. And look at how deeply and personally unfair this is.

Or, of course, if I’m in a more socially conscious liberal arts form of my default setting, I can spend time in the end-of-the-day traffic being disgusted about all the huge, stupid, lane-blocking SUV’s and Hummers and V-12 pickup trucks, burning their wasteful, selfish, 40-gallon tanks of gas, and I can dwell on the fact that the patriotic or religious bumper-stickers always seem to be on the biggest, most disgustingly selfish vehicles, driven by the ugliest [responding here to loud applause] — this is an example of how NOT to think, though — most disgustingly selfish vehicles, driven by the ugliest, most inconsiderate and aggressive drivers. And I can think about how our children’s children will despise us for wasting all the future’s fuel, and probably screwing up the climate, and how spoiled and stupid and selfish and disgusting we all are, and how modern consumer society just sucks, and so forth and so on.

You get the idea.

If I choose to think this way in a store and on the freeway, fine. Lots of us do. Except thinking this way tends to be so easy and automatic that it doesn’t have to be a choice. It is my natural default setting. It’s the automatic way that I experience the boring, frustrating, crowded parts of adult life when I’m operating on the automatic, unconscious belief that I am the centre of the world, and that my immediate needs and feelings are what should determine the world’s priorities.

The thing is that, of course, there are totally different ways to think about these kinds of situations. In this traffic, all these vehicles stopped and idling in my way, it’s not impossible that some of these people in SUV’s have been in horrible auto accidents in the past, and now find driving so terrifying that their therapist has all but ordered them to get a huge, heavy SUV so they can feel safe enough to drive. Or that the Hummer that just cut me off is maybe being driven by a father whose little child is hurt or sick in the seat next to him, and he’s trying to get this kid to the hospital, and he’s in a bigger, more legitimate hurry than I am: it is actually I who am in HIS way.

Or I can choose to force myself to consider the likelihood that everyone else in the supermarket’s checkout line is just as bored and frustrated as I am, and that some of these people probably have harder, more tedious and painful lives than I do.

Again, please don’t think that I’m giving you moral advice, or that I’m saying you are supposed to think this way, or that anyone expects you to just automatically do it. Because it’s hard. It takes will and effort, and if you are like me, some days you won’t be able to do it, or you just flat out won’t want to.

But most days, if you’re aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line. Maybe she’s not usually like this. Maybe she’s been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer. Or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the motor vehicle department, who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a horrific, infuriating, red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness. Of course, none of this is likely, but it’s also not impossible. It just depends what you want to consider. If you’re automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won’t consider possibilities that aren’t annoying and miserable. But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.

Not that that mystical stuff is necessarily true. The only thing that’s capital-T True is that you get to decide how you’re gonna try to see it.

This, I submit, is the freedom of a real education, of learning how to be well-adjusted. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn’t. You get to decide what to worship.

Because here’s something else that’s weird but true: in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship–be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles–is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.

Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they’re evil or sinful, it’s that they’re unconscious. They are default settings.

They’re the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that’s what you’re doing.

And the so-called real world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings, because the so-called real world of men and money and power hums merrily along in a pool of fear and anger and frustration and craving and worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom all to be lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the centre of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talk about much in the great outside world of wanting and achieving…. The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.

That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.

I know that this stuff probably doesn’t sound fun and breezy or grandly inspirational the way a commencement speech is supposed to sound. What it is, as far as I can see, is the capital-T Truth, with a whole lot of rhetorical niceties stripped away. You are, of course, free to think of it whatever you wish. But please don’t just dismiss it as just some finger-wagging Dr Laura sermon. None of this stuff is really about morality or religion or dogma or big fancy questions of life after death.

The capital-T Truth is about life BEFORE death.

It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:

“This is water.”

It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out. Which means yet another grand cliché turns out to be true: your education really IS the job of a lifetime. And it commences: now.

I wish you way more than luck.

The speech was originally published on the Kenyon College website .

Thanks for reading. You can get more actionable ideas in my popular email newsletter. Each week, I share 3 short ideas from me, 2 quotes from others, and 1 question to think about. Over 3,000,000 people subscribe . Enter your email now and join us.

James Clear writes about habits, decision making, and continuous improvement. He is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Atomic Habits . The book has sold over 20 million copies worldwide and has been translated into more than 60 languages.

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TikTok is about to get its day in court

The justice department’s legal case for a forced sale includes classified evidence no one can see..

By Gaby Del Valle and Lauren Feiner

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Next week, a court will hear arguments about whether the US government can ban TikTok , based on evidence it doesn’t want anyone — including the social media company — to see.

On September 16th, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will hear oral arguments for TikTok v. Garland , TikTok’s First Amendment challenge to legislation that it claims amounts to a ban. It’s a fight not just about free speech but whether the Department of Justice can make a case using classified material that its opponent can’t review or argue against. The government argues TikTok is a clear national security threat but says that revealing why would be a threat, too.

“I think the courts are going to tread very carefully here,” Matt Schettenhelm, a senior litigation analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence covering tech and telecom, told The Verge. “Especially in a First Amendment case like this, where it’s effectively banning one of our leading platforms for free speech in the country, the idea that you’re going to do it for secret reasons that you don’t even tell the company itself, that is going to be cause for concern for the judges.”

The DOJ’s case against TikTok

TikTok’s suit stems from a law signed by President Joe Biden back in April . The law requires TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to divest it within nine months to a non-Chinese company; if it fails, the app would be effectively banned in the US — unless the president grants it a few months to get a deal done. TikTok has argued the law would unconstitutionally “force a shutdown,” accusing the government of taking “the unprecedented step of expressly singling out and banning TikTok.”

In filings first submitted on July 28th, the government laid out its defense, making a series of declarations about TikTok’s risks. The claims relied on dozens of pages of redacted classified material. The DOJ insisted it wasn’t “trying to litigate in secret,” but, citing national security concerns, it asked to file the classified material ex parte, meaning only one side (and the panel of judges) would be able to see it.

We obviously don’t know exactly what’s in these documents, but the partially redacted filings give us some hints. They focus largely on the potential that the Chinese government could compel ByteDance to hand over the data of US users — or that it could coerce the company into using TikTok’s algorithm to push specific content onto US users. 

The government argues that the national security risks posed by TikTok are so significant that they override First Amendment claims. The DOJ said Congress decided to ban TikTok based on “extensive information — including substantial classified information — on the national-security risk” of allowing TikTok to remain operational in the US. 

One of the documents is a declaration from Casey Blackburn, an assistant director of national intelligence. Blackburn writes that there is “no information” that the Chinese government has used TikTok for “malign foreign influence targeting US persons” or the “collection of sensitive data of US persons.” But he says there is “a risk” of it happening in the future. 

Another declaration comes from Kevin Vorndran, an assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence division. Vorndran details the possibility that TikTok may be a “hybrid commercial threat”: a business whose legitimate activity serves as a backdoor through which foreign governments can access US data, infrastructure, and technologies. He states that the Chinese government uses “prepositioning tactics” as part of a “broader geopolitical and long-term strategy to undermine US national security.” These efforts, the government claims, “span several years of planning and implementation.”

In other words, the government is arguing that even if China hasn’t yet surveilled TikTok’s US users, it could . It takes particular issue with TikTok’s ability to access users’ contacts, location, and other data that it says could potentially let the Chinese government track Americans. The DOJ notes that researchers can easily identify individuals using anonymized data bundles, making “anonymized” data anything but.

The filings argue that TikTok’s recommendation algorithm could also be used to influence US users. TikTok’s “heating” feature lets employees “manually boost certain content,” potentially at the direction of the Chinese government. Lawmakers from both parties have accused TikTok of promoting content critical of Israel . In a private meeting with the group No Labels, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) suggested that college campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war were proof that students are being “manipulated by certain groups or entities or countries .” And Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), the ranking member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, told The New York Times in April that the Israel-Hamas war was a factor in the eagerness of legislators to regulate TikTok.

The hardest evidence for any of this isn’t public, though. Blackburn’s declaration includes an eight-page section titled “ByteDance and TikTok’s History of Censorship and Content Manipulation at PRC Direction,” for instance, but it’s almost entirely redacted. 

• January 4th, 2021: TikTok sends the executive branch an updated mitigation proposal, renewing negotiations to resolve the government’s national security concerns
• August 23rd, 2022: TikTok submits a final proposed national security agreement to the executive branch
• September 3rd, 2022: ByteDance executives meet with the Departments of Justice and the Treasury to discuss TikTok’s source code and potential remedies to national security concerns
• September 27th, 2022: DOJ representatives discuss TikTok’s source code with ByteDance counsel and technical experts
• October 14th, 2022: DOJ and Treasury representatives correspond with ByteDance regarding the executive branch’s review of the final proposed national security agreement
• November 28th, 2022: ByteDance requests a meeting with the executive branch. Treasury Department representatives respond four days later, saying the government is still reviewing the proposed agreement
• January 9th, 2023: Executive branch representatives email ByteDance questions about recent news concerning TikTok
• February 1st, 2023: ByteDance submits responses to the executive branch’s questions
• February 10th, 2023: ByteDance submits second tranche of responses to US government questions
• March 6th, 2023: Executive branch representatives tell ByteDance and TikTok US that the final proposed national security agreement does not sufficiently address national security risks

The DOJ filings also reveal — and simultaneously obscure — the lengthy, extensive negotiations that preceded the ban. ByteDance and TikTok executives met with representatives from several agencies starting in August 2022, discussing ways to address security concerns without divestment. By March 2023, the government believed divestment was the only option. And in February 2024, Congress began holding briefings about its potential threats. 

• February 15th, 2024: House Homeland Committee briefing
• March 7th, 2024: House Energy and Commerce full committee markup hearing
• March 12th, 2024: House of Representatives all-member classified briefing
• March 20th, 2024: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and Senate Commerce, Science, and Technology Committee classified briefing

During these hearings, lawmakers discussed the threats China poses to US national security, formal and informal methods of control the Chinese government exerts over companies that do business there, and the specifics of China’s control over ByteDance.

But the briefing transcripts are largely redacted — including one section discussing an additional unknown issue. “We never see what the lawmakers actually decided, or what actually drove their decision,” Schettenhelm said. “There’s sort of a missing piece here: how much did the lawmakers consider this a true threat, and why did they need to take this extreme step as opposed to less drastic measures?”

TikTok fights back

TikTok contends that the government’s defense is full of errors, including what it calls “false assertions” about what data it stores and where. It says it does not store users’ precise locations and claims information from users’ contact lists “is automatically anonymized” and “cannot be used to recover the original contact information” of people who aren’t on TikTok. TikTok says that contrary to claims its anonymized data isn’t anonymous, the proposed agreement required anonymization tools “often used by the US government to protect sensitive data.”

The company also denies that the Chinese government can access the data of American users or influence its algorithm. It says US user data and TikTok’s “US recommendation engine” are stored in the United States with Oracle, thanks to a $1.5 billion siloing effort dubbed Project Texas. But reports have suggested TikTok employees in the US continued to report to ByteDance executives in Beijing after the plan’s implementation, and one former employee described the effort as “largely cosmetic.”

Still, TikTok argues the government’s claims about its operations are largely false. TikTok says that the government ignored its extensive, detailed plan to address national security concerns — and that the information the DOJ has provided fails to prove why a ban was necessary. 

Schettenhelm, the Bloomberg Intelligence legal expert, said Congress’ decision to single out a single company is unique. TikTok argues it’s also unlawful. The Constitution prohibits what are known as “bill of attainder laws,” which single out an individual or company without due process. The bill bans social media websites and apps controlled by “foreign adversaries” that meet certain criteria — including having more than 1 million monthly active users and letting users generate content — but TikTok is the only company it mentions by name. The court will have to decide who’s right. 

The government “never really explains why TikTok is subject to that different process, and I think when you do something so unique like that, especially when the First Amendment is implicated, I think the courts are going to want to see more of a justification,” Schettenhelm said.

TikTok’s uncertain future

A decision will likely come in December, where the court could either uphold the law’s constitutionality or block it from going into effect. But it won’t necessarily put an end to the legal saga. If the court rules in favor of the government and upholds the law, TikTok has multiple avenues through which it could appeal, Schettenhelm told The Verge . It could ask for an en banc decision in which all the judges in the DC Circuit Court examine the decision. TikTok could also appeal the case and ask the Supreme Court to overturn the decision. 

But Schettenhelm predicts that the court could block the law from taking effect because it’s unable to determine whether it’s constitutional. “I think that potentially could have the effect of throwing it back to Congress, and Congress could go ahead at taking another shot,” Schettenhelm said. “Congress would have to pass a second law, and the president would have to sign it.”

Given that the initial bill passed with an overwhelming bipartisan consensus, a subsequent bill could pass easily. But the outcome of the election could determine whether the law goes into effect. Former President Donald Trump — who previously attempted to ban TikTok — said in March that he now opposes efforts to ban the app.

If the court rules against TikTok, the clock will keep ticking toward its divestment date — when one of the biggest social media platforms in the country could disappear.

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