World Water Day

Make March 22, World Water Day, an annual celebration by declaring just one spring week a year "World Water Week." Spring rains and renewal... there's no better time.

Donate the money collected just this one week to your faith’s sustainable WASH development work.

What a wonderful week to reach out to another congregation or a congregation of another faith to share a meal and joint project in support of global water. (More ideas below:)

Sermon for World Water

Share A Sermon for World Water during World Water Week. This version with beautiful photos celebrating water in Ethiopia is great to post on your website.

Check out this version or our sermon, in our FREE  and flexible faith-based curriculum for students to explore the world of water in faith: https://www.h2oforlifeschools.org/lesson-plans 
[Click in any of the 3 age/grade levels and then click on “Intro to the Water Crisis”]

Impact healthcare

Upwards of 50% of healthcare facilities are run by faith-based organizations. Is yours one of them? Find out and express your concern about the lack of water and sanitation in healthcare facilities around the world.

The World Health Organization will soon launch a comprehensive online resource specifically dedicated to improving WASH in healthcare facilities. Make sure your denominational organizations are aware of this new global effort!

Build Community

Why not invite a neighboring house of worship to join you in supporting WASH? Here are a few fun activities for families, congregations and communities that raise awareness and funds for a WASH project (and will make your kids laugh every time they flush the toilet.)

"Drop in the Bucket":  Every time a family member uses water, s/he drops a coin in a bucket. That’s not just a drink of water and a shower -- it’s flushing the toilet, cooking, watering plants, even filling the dog bowl… It's a fun way to raise awareness of just how vital water is in our daily lives; what it would be like without it; and encourages less waste at home. The funds raised that week can be donated to a sustainable WASH project.

"Tap into Tap Water": Family members give up soda and sugary drinks and substitute water for just one week. Families learn just how much they spend on drinks with little nutritional value and lots of calories; they may even feel healthier for having drunk water instead that week! And the money saved that week can be donated to a sustainable WASH project.

"Water Fall For All": Religious schools classes sell paper water droplets for $1/each which are artfully decorated and hung on a wall to create a beautiful water mosaic in your house of worship. It's a creative, community-building activity for all ages.

Save Money at Home

Calculate YOUR water footprint, then reduce your footprint (and save money, too!)  Check out 50 Ways to Conserve Water, Water-Saving Tips and Water Wise tips (which also includes some fun water factoids.)

Here are just a few money and water saving tips:

• A full dishwasher uses less water than handwashing. Yes!

• Put a gallon or half gallon jug filled with water in your toilet tank. You'll still effectively flush but save up to 10,000 gallons of water a year!

• Lawns are real water abusers. Plant indigenous, low water plants. Your yard will be beautiful and you'll cut down on that spring/summer water bill.
  

• Go veg forward:  Just one pound of beef requires over 2400 gallons of water to produce. Reverse your dinner plate. Rather than centering meat (that's so 1950s!) center tasty plants and grains and just eat animal products occasionally. It's better for your health, pocketbook, and the planet. 
  
• Turn off those lights: Keeping a single 60-watt light bulb lit for 12 hours uses as much as 60 litres of water.
• More tips (hat/tip to Kate who shared this with us! https://quiethut.com/save-water/
• And even more links to saving money and water! Thank you Corrine, a conscientious Girl Scout from Pennsylvania:
  

1. Start Saving by the Environmental Protection Agency
   
2. Simple Steps to Save Water by Energy Star
3. 100 Ways to Save Water by the City of Wichita Falls
4. Water Saving Tips by AustinTexas.gov
5. Conserving Water, One Drop at a Time by Energy.gov
6. Saving Water Makes Good Sense by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation

Be a Smarter Consumer

The UN is asking people around the world to consume less water-intensive products and reduce their food waste, which in turn reduces the water used to produce all that we eat. Water is used in everyday products at astounding rates, here are some examples:

The manufacturing process for a brand new car uses almost 400,000 litres of water, that's enough to fill eight NHL size hockey rinks.

About 32 litres of water is used in the creation process of a 2-gram 32-megabyte memory chip and its plastic package. A typical semiconductor factory makes about 2 million integrated circuits per month and gulps about 20 million gallons of water, which is then disposed of as waste.

For every kilogram of synthetic rubber produced, 460 litres of water is used.

Between animal feed and manufacturing, the cost of a pair of leather shoes is 8,000 litres of water, which is enough to fill 2,113 milk jugs.

While the water used to brew a cup of coffee might be obvious, the overall water usage consumed in the process is not. A single cup of coffee costs 130 litres of water, while about 18,900 litres are needed to produce 1 kg of roasted coffee.

The water cost for one 250 ml glass of beer made from barley is 74 litres - and that doesn't include how much water is used to make other ingredients that are added to the brew.

Chocolate lovers everywhere might be surprised that an average 100 gram chocolate bar costs 1,700 litres of water.

The longstanding dinner table favorite required 530 litres of water -- per kilogram of tomato ketchup