World Water Week - March 17 - March 22

Thank you to all of you who participated in helping us raise over $3,000 for the "Water For Life Project in Zambia". The Hilton Foundation has committed to triple our amount, raising the total to $12,000! We are gracious and thankful in doing our part in providing clean, safe water to children in Africa. See pictures from the event here.

- Patrick Donston

By resolution 47/193 of 22 December 1992, the General Assembly declared 22 March of each year World Day for Water starting in 1993. It is a unique occasion to remind everybody that concrete efforts to provide clean drinking water and increase awareness world-wide of the problems and of the solutions, can help make the difference.

Water - the most basic element on earth. Without water, human life doesn't exist. And without safe water, neither does good health.

For most of us, it's a short walk to the faucet in the kitchen, or bottled water in the refrigerator. But for more than a billion people - about one in six people on earth - getting safe water each day is no easy task. Women and children around the world walk 200 million hours every day for water - water that often comes from a polluted source.

The effects of unclean water are devastating. Every 15 seconds, a child dies from a water-borne disease, the leading cause of death and illness in the world. Lack of access to safe water leads to a perpetual cycle of disease, death, and lost productivity.

But the good news is we have the cure. We know how to provide safe water.

March 22 has been designated World Water Day - an international day of observance and action to draw attention to the plight of those without access to safe drinking water. On this important date, WaterPartners celebrates its progress and renews its commitment to achieving its vision - the day when everyone in the world can take a safe drink of water. - WaterPartners International 2007