/ 5,000 walks for water
You can give it back. From now until World Water Day on March 22, every £30 can end a walk for water. 100% of your donation funds clean water projects.
No walk for water is the same. For a mum in Cambodia, a pond or marsh may be steps from her front door: it just isn't safe to drink. For a young girl in Nepal, the nearest mountain stream could require an hours-long hike. But no matter what the walk is like, it always steals time.
Give time (and so much more)
Tick. Tock. We’re loading the blocks...
CLOSESecure Payment · This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Want to give more than minutes?
Click here to sponsor a water project and clear the calendar for an entire community.
A schedule set by dirty water can mean 4 a.m. wake-up calls. It can mean hours of walking. Missed classes. Neverending chores. A relentless, painstaking juggle of needs, wants, and dreams.
But give time and clean water, and the daily grind grinds to a halt. Women and girls can suddenly — and wonderfully — live lives free from the burden of dirty water and wasted time.
Give time (and so much more)
charity: water has been on a mission to bring clean and safe drinking water to people around the world since 2006. Thanks to generous supporters like you and our 100% Model, we’ve funded clean water for approximately 16.8 million people. But we’re not slowing down, and we won’t — not until time is no longer wasted on dirty water.
For the accountants, bankers, and maths-minded people in the audience, here are the cold hard facts: according to charity: water’s MAP framework*, a family saves an average of 70 minutes per day once they have access to clean water.
We realise that’s a per-household figure — not per person. However, we also know that women and girls almost always bear the burden of collecting water for their families. It’s a norm we’ve witnessed time and time again, and we’re not the only ones. Overwhelmingly, it is their time that gets stolen, and with clean water, saved.
*MAP is charity: water’s monitoring & evaluation framework which collects data across a range of water, sanitation, and hygiene indicators. Through MAP, charity: water has funded the collection of more than 65,000 household surveys across 18 countries.
charity: water’s 100% Model is our promise that 100% of every public donation funds clean water. To fund our operating expenses, we rely on a small group of generous philanthropists and key brand partners known as The Well.
Arya Nepal
“I'm certain I will get time to study if we have access to water at home.”
Arya starts every school day at 5 a.m. That’s because before she can walk to school, she first has to walk for water.
On average, it takes Arya at least an hour and a half to collect water — longer if there’s a line. When that happens, she risks missing her first class. And for a girl who dreams of becoming a doctor, those are precious hours to lose.
MORE TIME FOR EDUCATION
For Arya, less time collecting water means more time studying to become a doctor.
A £30 donation will contribute to saving girls like Arya 70 minutes a day.
Bintou Mali
“With water, we can make more pots. We can earn more money. This gives us joy.”
Bintou starts her day by walking to an 800-year-old well. Round trip, it’s a three-hour ordeal that starts before sunrise.
She needs the water for all of the things you expect: drinking, cooking, cleaning, bathing. But she also needs it to make her pottery. Unfortunately, her craft is limited by that three-hour walk to the 800-year-old well, and she has to ration what she collects. For now, Bintou only has enough water, time, and energy to make one pot per day.
MORE TIME FOR BUSINESS
For Bintou, less time spent collecting water means more time to make and sell pottery.
A £30 donation will contribute to saving women like Bintou 70 minutes a day.
Detiva Rwanda
“I will eat on time. Do you hear me? I will be able to cook and eat!”
Detiva doesn’t eat on school days.
That’s because her children are responsible for collecting water; she’s not physically able to make the trip. But with a three-hour round trip trek to the water source, it’s impossible for her kids to collect water and make it to class on time. There’s little that Detiva can cook without water, so on school days, she waits. She won’t enjoy her first full meal until well after dark.
MORE TIME TO EAT
When Detiva gets access to clean water, she won’t have to choose between two basic needs: food and water.
A £30 donation will contribute to saving women like Detiva 70 minutes a day.
Ennifer Malawi
“The water is scarce and competitive to find. It runs out as we draw it.”
Competitive. That’s how Ennifer describes collecting water in her community.
She and the other local women rely on a nearby river alongside goats, cows, and pigs. There’s rarely enough to go around, plus, the water makes them sick. They complain of “running stomachs” and diarrhea; illnesses that sap them of more time and energy. But this is the only water they have. So three to five times a day, Ennifer returns to the river. And when the river inevitably runs dry, she searches for another source, wasting even more hours on a basic human right.
MORE TIME FEELING HEALTHY
Dirty water steals Ennifer’s time and health. Reliable access to clean water will restore both.
A £30 donation will contribute to saving women like Ennifer 70 minutes a day.
Abrehet Ethiopia
“Regardless of how tiresome it is, we have to go and get water.”
Abrehet feels tired from the moment she opens her eyes. Already, her time is completely spoken for. In the dry season, dirty water claims as much as six hours of her day.
During the winter, water is scarce. Lush fields become cracked plains. Women and children walk miles from the highlands into the ravines below, digging through mud and silt for whatever river water remains beneath. The water is full of algae and known to cause disease, but what choice do they have? The daily fight makes her wish she lived anywhere else.
MORE TIME TO REST
With access to clean water, Abrehet can finally take a break and breathe easy.
A £30 donation will contribute to saving women like Abrehet 70 minutes a day.
