Cool Water Charities

Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes. We are home to more shoreline than Alaska, Hawaii, and California combined. We take pride in the fact that we have pristine, clean, usable water for drink and play. We base our lifestyles around it. We base our livelihoods on it. Clean usable water is so ingrained in our Minnesota culture.

HDT’s hometown of Pine River utilizes it’s water sources for drinking and recreation.

With our overabundance of great water, do we take it for granted? Probably not. But, are we blessed? I think we are. Just last year, I was able to write a series of posts focusing on the MANY beaches in the #BrainerdLakesArea. (Gull Lake Recreation Area was my clear favorite).

However, look at other areas of the United States, and then widen your view to other areas of the globe. With other areas of the world suffering through a seemingly endless drought, unusable or unavailable water supplies, and zero access to sanitary water conditions, there has to be something we can do to help.

Fortunately, there are many water charities that are putting the effort into making water more accessible to both communities and nations, alike. Here are just a few:

Water.org –

Co-founded by Matt Damon, Water.org seeks to go beyond drilling wells to ensure that all projects are sustainable for the long-term, involve local partners and community members, adequately address sanitation and hygiene, and have appropriate monitoring systems in place to keep track of issues and successes. They have also developed the WaterCredit initiative, which uses small loans to individuals and communities to empower people to address their own water needs.

UNICEF –

How long could you go without touching your phone? United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund challenged people to go without tapping their cell phones for as long as possible in order to provide clean water to children in need. The [Tap Project’s] (https://tap.unicefusa.org/) site provides facts about water consumption to inspire you as you’re giving back and dutifully ignoring your texts. The Tap Project concluded in 2016, raising over $6 million. This is just one way that organizations are thinking with new technology to help solve old problems.

Charity:Water –

Charity: Water has established itself as one of the most well-known water charities out there. The organization donates 100 percent of the money it raises to installing water technology in at-risk communities and training community members to maintain and manage these projects.

MIYA –

Miya focuses on reducing Non-Revenue Water (NRW), fresh water that is lost from the distribution system before it reaches consumers. Most municipal water infrastructures are antiquated and not well maintained, resulting in the daily loss of millions of cubic meters of clean water. Miya’s approach takes into consideration the needs, budget and goals of a particular city to design the most appropriate NRW reduction strategy, in addition to providing community awareness programs about water preservation. NRW reduction significantly delivers more clean water, saves energy and lowers costs- a total win-win situation.

These are just a few organizations that are doing tremendous work in the field of water. Do you have any that you want to showcase? Do you donate to any water charities? We’d love to hear about them.

#worldwatermonth #miya #water #charities #charitywater #waterorg #unicef #worldwaterday