10th Annual 4 Miles 4 Water

This is my fifth year participating in Drink Local Drink Tap's 4 Miles 4 Water and it happens to be the 10th Anniversary! On Saturday, June 10th, 2023 people from all over will walk or run 4 miles to raise awareness and funds for the 2 billion people who are burdened with the daily impact of the World Water Crisis. I began working for this organization in 2019 and joined the team full-time as our Marketing and Communication Coordinator in 2022. By contributing to my fundraiser, you're helping my team MIST YOU reach our goal of raising $400.00. Our organization is small but mighty and we work closely with our partner communities to ensure each and every water project is in excellent condition for generations of use! Did you know that historically 80% of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene projects permanently fail within the first two years? Not ours! 100% of our over 116+ projects are thriving. We take our time, educate communities, and foster lifelong relationships to break the cycle of poverty, public health, and gender inequity through the POWER OF CLEAN WATER.

Anyone can participate in 4 Miles 4 Water! Register to walk or run 1 mile or 4 miles in person on June 10th in the Flats East Bank. Walk or run 1 mile or 4 miles in your own community and join the fun from afar. Anyone can become a 4 Miles 4 Water fundraiser and share their unique fundraising page to raise money which will allow Drink Local Drink Tap to continue our life-saving work. Your individual fundraising page can link to a team fundraiser, and easily connect to Facebook fundraising to work as a pack and raise even more! #4M4W2023 #DigCleanWater #PowerOfWater #Waves4Change

Since 2010, Drink Local Drink Tap has worked both domestically in Northeast Ohio and internationally in Uganda to improve water equity and quality. Over 44,900 people now have access to clean water and over 16,000 people have sanitation as a result of Drink Local Drink Tap’s projects in Uganda. With the help of Cleveland-based volunteers, Drink Local Drink Tap has also removed over 15,000 pounds of trash through beach clean-ups and engaged over 20,300 young people in doing so. Our mission is to improve water equity through projects, programming, and partnerships because we believe clean water is a human right. 

Why is this distance 4 miles? In East Africa and many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, people living in rural communities often must walk an average of 4 miles a day to find, collect, and haul water that might not be safe for consumption or use. 

Facts & Figures from United Nations Water: 

• Today, 1 in 4 people – 2 billion people – around the world lack safely managed drinking water. (WHO/UNICEF, 2021)
• 2.3 billion people live in water-stressed countries, of which 733 million live in high and critically water-stressed countries. (UN-Water, 2021)
• About 4 billion people, representing nearly two-thirds of the global population, experience severe water scarcity during at least one month of the year. (Mekonnen and Hoekstra, 2016)
• Women and girls are responsible for water collection in 8 out of 10 households with water off-premises, which means reducing the population with limited drinking water services will have a strong gender impact. (WHO/UNICEF, 2017)
• 1 million deaths each year are associated with unclean births. Infections account for 26% of neonatal deaths and 11% of maternal mortality. (WHO/UNICEF, 2019)
• 3 out of 10 people, 2.3 billion, lack a handwashing facility with water and soap at home, including 670 million who have no access to a handwashing facility at all. (WHO/UNICEF, 2021)
• 700 children die every day from diseases linked to unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene. (WHO/UNICEF, 2021)
• 462 million children attend schools with no handwashing facilities at all. (WHO/UNICEF, 2021)
• Globally, at least 2 billion people use a drinking water source contaminated with feces. (WHO, 2019)