The 8th Twin Cities Walk for Water will take place Saturday at 9 a.m. at Upper Landing Park, 226 Spring St., St. Paul. Participants will take part in a three-mile walk around the park, collecting water to ultimately place it in a water treatment system.
“(The) goal is to symbolize the average distance that millions of women and children make every single day to collect water that’s often dirty and contaminated,” said Heather Fleming, the national walk specialist at Water Mission, the nonprofit behind Walk for Water, a Christian nonprofit that sets up treatment plants in various communities around the world, regardless of faith. “What participants do is they carry a bucket of water. They collect a bucket for one and a half miles, fill it with water, and then complete the remaining one and a half miles where they empty it into a treatment system demonstration unit to show what systems are used in the field … (We) encourage people to think about the fact that women and children are filling five gallons outta necessity and having to carry that. What really hits home is that it’s really difficult to carry that much water.”
The walk is set to educate people about the experiences of those without ready and easy access to clean water, both in the symbolism of the walk as well as signs with statistics and stories posted along the path about the need for clean water and the impact of water access on people and communities. One of these stories will be that of Gladys, a 13-year-old girl living in Golomoti, a community in Malawi.
Gladys, wrote Water Mission in a January blog post, wants to be an engineer and enjoys solving math problems at school – when she’s able to attend. Since she also collects water for her family’s daily use, she has to travel a while to get to a borehole where she can collect untreated water. The travel time means she doesn’t always get to go to school.
In addition to the loss of education, lack of access to clean water contributes to other issues, including health.
“(Water access) has a knock on effect on everything,” said Fleming.
In 2022, according to the World Health Organization, at least 1.7 billion people around the world were getting their water from sources contaminated with feces, exposing them to various water borne illnesses, including cholera, dysentery and typhoid.
“Water Mission is really good at sharing the individual stories and having people tell their own stories (about) how (water access has) impacted them,” said Aubrey Mozer, community relations manager for GF Building Flow Solutions Americas, a company that provides components, including piping, for Water Mission’s treatment units.
In these stories, Mozer said, “many (people) have talked about how drinking dirty water has impacted their health. They had all these health problems, they weren’t able to go to school (or) work. It caused a lot of sickness in their families and bringing in this living water treatment system has completely transformed their family’s trajectory going forward.”
While the average American uses around 80 to 100 gallons of water per day, households needing to carry water home tend to make one trip using a five gallon container for all their needs. The Twin Cities Walk for Water will feature two gallon buckets, with participants at the walk – including children – able to choose how much water they will carry.
While registration for the event is free, both online and at the event, the goal of the walk is to fundraise for Water Mission to set up water treatment systems. This year, funds will be going to set up systems in Malawi. The process of setting up these systems, said Fleming, can take from 6 months to 2 years. The reason for this extended time is to ensure that communities are involved and engaged in the process – not just in the treatment system’s setup, but its continued operation.
Participants walk for free, but are encouraged to donate or financially support walking teams set up by families, companies and organizations. GF Building Flow Solutions is organizing its own company-wide team and encouraging personnel to arrive with their families.
“The great thing is (that) once you (set up a team or register as an individual), it’s really easy then to share information with your family, friends (and) neighbors – ‘Hey I’ve committed to walking for water this year – would you support me in this effort?’” said Mozer.
A contribution can change the life of someone else across the globe for the better. With a $50 contribution, Fleming says, one person is able to have ongoing access to clean and usable water. This year, the fundraising goal is $200,000.
Deanna Pistono
Deanna Pistono is MinnPost’s Race & Health Equity fellow. Follow her on Twitter @deannapistono or email her at dpistono@minnpost.com.
