A time to fight for. A time to fight against.

Dirty water is a bully that picks on 663 million people around the globe. Today, we’re standing up to it.

For almost a decade now, charity: water has been fighting to bring clean water to people in need.

Fighting for drilled wells, gravity-fed systems, and biosand filters.

Fighting for community-led total sanitation, hand-washing stations, and water committees.

Fighting for pipes, drilling rigs, and mechanics.

And while we’ve gotten really good at celebrating all of the things that we’re fighting for, we haven’t spent too much time talking about what we’re fighting against.

Dirty water doesn’t always look the same. It varies in color and turbidity.

We’ve seen brilliantly orange water in Cambodia and muted green water in India. In places like Ethiopia, it can come with debris and leeches so big that it needs to be filtered through a cloth. In other countries, it comes so unassumingly clear that you’d never question it.

The one thing that does remain constant with dirty water is the sickness it causes for families around the world.

That’s bigger than it sounds: Diseases from dirty water kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war.

That’s what we’re dealing with here.

You’ve heard us talk positively about the fact that “water changes everything.” Well, it works both ways.

For 1 in 10 people on this planet, water is a handicap.

For Women: Dirty water costs time.

Not having access to clean water in your community can mean hours every day trying to find water somewhere else. And then carrying a 40-pound Jerry Can back home with you. In Africa alone, women spend 40 billion hours a year walking for water.

It’s grueling, tedious, and dangerous.

Worth Reading: The Last Walk for Water

For Kids: Dirty water steals childhood.

Many kids miss school and the opportunity to have fun being kids because they’re busy collecting water and helping to ease the burden on their families.

They start to become adults years too early because life demands so much responsibility at such a young age.

Worth Watching: Episode 3 of The Journey “Life Without Clean Water”

For Communities: Dirty water prevents long, healthy life.

Entire families are forced into a cycle of poverty that keeps them from earning income, pursuing education, or improving their lives.

Communities without clean water don’t have the opportunity to dream. In fact, they have very little opportunity at all.

Worth Reading: The Woman Who Fell Down the Well

This isn’t thousands of people in a country you’ve never heard of — it’s 663 million people around the world. Fellow humans. Moms and dads. Wannabe teachers and doctors.

The very real reality is that dirty water is a bully, it’s holding 1/10th of our planet hostage, and it’s time to stand up to it.

For almost ten years, charity: water has fought for.
Now it’s time to fight against.

To fight against nearly-invisible bacteria and leeches.

To fight against diarrhea and dehydration.

To fight against poverty and hopelessness.

Today, we’re launching our 10th anniversary campaign to #FightDirty. We’re challenging the world to do more and expect better. To give a voice to the voiceless. To step up instead of standing by.

And we need you to fight with us.

Written By: Tyler Riewer
Photos By: Jeremy Snell, Esther Havens, Mo Scarpelli, & Tyler Riewer