17 billion litres on World Water Day 2024
17 billion litres on World Water Day 2023
As every year, we are announcing our meter reading on World Water Day: since our start, we have already produced more than 17 billion litres of clean drinking water on behalf of more than 500 ambassadors!
The past year
After two disappointing years due to corona, we were able to show good growth last years, both in the number of ambassadors and in the number of litres that we are allowed to realise on their behalf in developing countries.
Fortunately, the impact of corona on our water projects has remained very limited, so that we are still achieving more than the promised liters in countries such as Ethiopia and Bangladesh.
In addition, we have worked hard on various new developments such as The Gift of Water and the Bottle Made Blue. We are therefore looking forward to the rest of this year!
17 billion litres
If we add up all donations up to and including World Water Day, March 22, we arrive at more than 17 billion liters of clean drinking water!
This impressive meter reading has been achieved thanks to the contribution of more than 500 ambassadors. These are companies that mirror their water savings or consumption in our program A liter for a liter such as MAAS, but also many catering entrepreneurs who serve the best water for the world.
We also include the various water coolers in offices and all donations linked to our reusable bottles. Finally, more and more hotels such as DoubleTree by Hilton are also donating to our Gift of Water program.
This is our meter reading
18217338957
LITER
We have already achieved so much clean drinking water in developing countries and that has more impact than you think:
Women have time to work again and children can go to school, giving them a better chance of a better life later. People no longer have to cut down trees to boil dirty water and it is no longer necessary to buy disposable bottles.
249553
people got access
127521
tons of CO2 saved
182173
tons of plastic waste prevented
2732601
trees saved
You can read more about our spending, water projects and our ambassadors in our annual report for the year 2023.
The meter reading in that report is slightly lower because the report runs until 31 December instead of 22 March.
How much is that exactly?
17 billion litres sounds like a lot of water, but how much is it really? Converted it means that we: provide over 240,000 people with 20 litres of water per day for at least 10 years or longer. That is more than the inhabitants of Nijmegen or Breda for example.
That is also more than 240,000 people such as Misra from Bishoftu, Ethiopia, mother of six children who, until recently, often fetched water at night and then had to queue for six hours.
For 10 years?
We calculate access for 10 years, but we do everything we can to ensure that this may be 100 years in practice. For example, for every project we provide a maintenance committee with members from the local community and people often have to pay a small contribution so that they can save for maintenance and repairs.
We choose to work in relatively stable regions where there are no conflicts that could threaten the water supply. We also include a risk margin in our calculations in case something unexpectedly goes wrong.
Contribute to our mission too
You can also contribute to our mission: clean drinking water for all.
That can be done in many more ways than you think, for example simply by shopping.
Or go out for dinner and have a glass of water.
You might want to read these updates too:
Clean drinking water update: 703 million people still lack access
At the end of last year, the WHO and UNICEF released a report on access to water and sanitation in 2020. Fortunately, we are moving in the right direction: from 785 million to 703 million people…
Read moreDurable water bottles with Albert Heijn and i-did
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Read moreOriginal artwork inspired by Made Blue
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Read moreMade Blue news articles
In honour of our 10th anniversary, several platforms interviewed us about our achievements and dreams for the future. Here is an overview.
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