How would you use water differently if you had to draw it from a pond, carry it home, and boil it before you used it? Would you still run the dishwasher every night, even when it wasn’t full? Would you still let the tap run while you brush your teeth? Would you simply dump out half-full glasses of water because they’re “tepid”?
It’s easy to take something as basic as water for granted. We simply turn on a faucet and it’s there. Rarely do we consider where it came from or how it got to us. It’s easily accessible, but it’s a limited resource.
More than that, with rare exception, it’s clean enough to drink as soon as we get it. Our taste and temperature preferences are luxuries to which some, through no fault of their own, are not privy.
Many around the world who live near streams, ponds, or reservoirs have access to water, but the water isn’t safe for them to use due to poor sanitation conditions.
Have you ever…?
If you’ve ever been camping and had to bathe in a lake, you understand that you’re not properly clean; you’ve only removed the grit.
If you’ve ever watched a toddler try to drink their own bath water after experiencing a “blowout”, you recognize that not all water is safe for drinking.
If you’ve ever visited a village where homes are built on stilts and “toilets” are holes cut into the floor, you’ve caught a glimpse of the challenges of finding clean water when there is no sanitation system.
Two billion people (almost a quarter of the world’s population) lack access to safe drinking water. Nearly 46% of the world’s population lacks adequate sanitation services, meaning sewage and/or garbage taint fresh water in the area. And unsafe water causes diseases that can lead to death, especially in the young and vulnerable.
How is it that something as basic as clean water isn’t accessible everywhere?
Good question.
There are those within the promotional products industry who believe water is a human right and individuals can change the world. It’s those two core tenets that led to Water4Good. Water4Good is a campaign launched by PromoCares in cooperation with Planet Water Foundation in 2023 to provide water tower and sanitation access in communities that need them.
That first year, PromoCares raised over $175,000 and deployed seven AquaTowers with hygiene education and disinfection systems.
The goal this year is to raise $200,000 and build 10 AquaTowers. Each tower provides fresh water to a community of 1,800 people. Ten towers would serve up to 18,000 people. That’s more than the number of people who attended The PPAI Expo in 2024 by about 2,000.
Currently the fundraising tally is about 19% shy of the goal.
Let’s show the world how kind the promotional products industry can be and blow that goal out of the water (pun intended). Let’s not take basic things for granted and work together to provide clean water to communities that need it.
How you can help
- Donate as an individual. In the same way a collection of drops forms a pool, every dollar donated helps to alleviate water poverty.
- Fundraise as a company. Have departments compete for bragging rights over who did the most good.
- Make this cause the one your regional organization rallies behind for the sake of the global community.
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