NI Water's World Water Day Message

Most of us take water for granted, but our lives would be pretty blue without it – nothing to drink, nothing to wash in, nothing to flush the toilet with! Yet for all too many people in the world today, that ‘blue’ existence is very real – our blue planet may be covered in water, but only around 1% is drinkable, and many countries simply do not have the means to provide required amounts of clean, safe water.



WaterAid, the international charity seeking to provide safe and reliable sources of drinking water right across the world, is marking World Water Day on 22 March by urging supporters to ‘go blue’, and NI Water is only too happy to support this initiative.



In order to encourage people to get into the spirit of things and become more aware of the necessity of clean water, NI Water is asking people to send us their ‘go blue’ selfies, showing us the imaginative ways Northern Ireland goes blue, in return for a water saving goodie pack!



Frank Stewart, Chair of WaterAid in Northern Ireland, said: ‘‘WaterAid has done some great work over the years in raising awareness of the lack of water in some of the world’s poorest communities, and on World Water Day this year, we want to encourage people to raise awareness of the fact that many people don’t have the safe, clean water we in Northern Ireland take for granted.



‘‘It’s difficult to believe that in 2017, 650 million people are still living without clean water in our world, and a full one third of the global population doesn’t have access to a safe, decent toilet. These are shocking figures, and we’re determined to do everything we can to help – ‘going blue’ on 22 March to raise awareness of this.



‘‘It’s very easy to ‘go blue’ for WaterAid – wear blue clothes, paint your nails blue, even paint yourself blue! It’s all a bit of fun of course, but it has a very serious message, and it all helps to make people aware that we are very fortunate to have a plentiful supply of safe water when so many others across the world can only dream of having this.



‘‘It’s great to have the support of NI Water as we try to turn Northern Ireland blue for a day, and hopefully many people will take up the #Blue4Water challenge as we work together to realise WaterAid’s vision of a world where everyone everywhere has safe water, sanitation and hygiene.’’



People can send their ‘blue selfies’ to NI Water via Twitter @niwnews using the #Blue4Water hashtag, or via Facebook. Everyone who does will receive one of NI Water’s water saving goodie packs!



If you are part of a community group and would like to arrange a talk on the work of WaterAid, please email education@niwater.com



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