THIS week over 750 people around Australia will participate in WaterAid’s Walk 4 Water to raise money for the 768 million people in the world who don’t have access to clean, safe water.
“Each Walk 4 Water participant will be walking 10,000 steps every day for 5 days this week, replicating the distance many people in the developing world walk each day just to collect water for drinking, cooking and washing,” said WaterAid Australia’s Acting Chief Executive Ms Rosie Wheen.
“When women and children spend hours collecting water every day they do not have time to earn a living or get an education, entrenching them in a cycle of poverty,” said Ms Wheen.
“People are often collecting and drinking unsafe water which causes illness. Without safe water people can’t have healthy lives. Children regularly get diarrhoea and often die before the age of five. 2,000 children die each day from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation,” said Ms Wheen.
“It’s hard to imagine life without water when in Australia it is so easy to turn on a tap in your house to get clean, safe water. Over 750 million people in the developing world can’t do this and there are women walking 10,000 steps every day just to collect water. That’s why I am doing WaterAid’s Walk 4 Water and I would like to encourage others to walk in the footsteps of those without safe water,” said Ms Wheen.
WaterAid’s Walk 4 Water participants will raise money to provide people with access to safe water and sanitation in the 26 developing countries around the world where WaterAid works, including our close neighbours in Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste.
WaterAid’s Walk 4 Water coincides with World Water Day on Saturday, March 22, 2014.
There is still time to register for Walk 4 Water at: www.walk4water.com.au
