On October 16, the United Nations will celebrate Freshwater Day in order to highlight the important role water plays in our lives. From the faucet, the shower, through the dishwasher, the clothes washer, and all the other daily uses that are so important. It catches our eye on the way to work as a babbling brook or the ocean waves. We cannot exist without it, but we treat water as an abundant, replaceable, resilient resource. While the globe is "awash" in water, only 1 percent or so is fresh water useable by humans, animals and plants.