World Water Day - The Hague: Fundraising event Walking For Water 2013 bigger than ever
A record setting 6000 school kids from 80 schools around the world 'Take the walk' on World Water Day.
From Columbia to Pakistan, from Ireland to Kenya, kids are getting ready to take action to raise awareness that not everyone has safe drinking water – and they should!
Together with the 27.000 participating school kids in the Netherlands, the event is really growing into a global campaign.
Very popular in The Netherlands
The concept of Walking for Water was pioneered in the Netherlands by non-governmental organisation Aqua for All, and has grown in popularity every year since it started in 2003. This year the event has been organized internationally because the Netherlands hosts the international celebration of World Water Day.
School children aged 10-15 are sponsored by friends and family to walk 6 kilometres while carrying 6 litres of water in a backpack.
Children learn about global water issues, while raising funds to help solve them.
Sponsoring a water well in Bangladesh
Over the past 10 years, Walking for Water has raised more than 5 million euro for water and sanitation projects in Africa, South America and Asia. One of the children that walked for water in the Netherlands is Job Labrie.
He was curious about the well his school raised funds for, and his parents decided to take Job and his brother to Bangladesh, where this well is situated.
Job Labrie's adventures in Bangladesh were filmed and can be seen in the series called Just Water. These great films give real insight into the water and sanitation issues children in developing countries, such as Bangladesh, face every day.
Report on the results
At the end of the High Level Meeting in The Hague on World Water Day (22 March) director Sjef Ernes of Aqua for All, Dutch minister Lilianne Ploumen for development and five kid-ambassadors will report on this year's results.
Stay tuned for more news around Walking for Water at UN World Water Day on the special website:
www.walkingforwater.eu
Follow this website for more news on the international celebration of World Water Day 2013 in The Hague.
The main events in The Hague on occasion of the international World Water Day 2013 celebration:
Wednesday 20 March
- Walking for Walk
Thursday 21 March
- Working hand in hand for groundwater governance roundtable
- Wings for water - multi-stakeholder dialogue(*)
Friday 22 March - official world water day
- World Youth Parliament for water conference - 22 March
- High Level Meeting on Water Cooperation and on the Global Thematic Consultation on Water - 22 March (*)
(* = on invitation only, will be broadcasted live by UN Water)
Read previous news items on World Water Day on this website:
- World Water Day – The Hague: "Water supply is more than fixing a pipeline"
- World Water Day – The Hague: "Water equity breaks the hold of national sovereignty"
- World Water Day – The Hague: Tomorrow’s water management is all about sharing water resources
- Unesco kicks off year of water cooperation in Paris, next event in The Hague
- First programme outline international celebration of World Water Day 2013 in The Hague
- Stockholm water week: Unesco and Dutch government take up World water day 2013
For the latest information on World Water Day 2013 see:
- International year of water cooperation
- International World Water Day 2013 celebration in The Hague, the Netherlands
Public consultations on post-2015 wash targets:
- The world we want 2015 - official UN thematic consultation - water
- The Broker Online - special debate Prioritising on water