Water, Water Everywhere But Not a Drop to Drink

Currently, 1.1 billion people don't have access to clean drinking water -- that's one out of every six people on the planet. Today, to commemorate World Water Day, we're featuring three videos on the home page that highlight the urgency and importance of providing clean water and sanitation to every single global citizen.

This video, from YouTube nonprofit partner charity:water, conveys the urgent need to build wells in the Central African Republic by juxtaposing powerful images with Beck's "Time Bomb":

Like charity:water, GOOD Magazine is also leveraging pop culture to spur citizens to take action. They've created a three-video series, rooted in familiar water-oriented scenes from iconic films and television, to demonstrate that life without clean water can be a very frightening prospect:



And if you're looking for straight facts without the fluff, this brief documentary from the International Red Cross provides specific information about how chronic water and sanitation challenges are affecting Zambia.

You can help solve the global water crisis by contributing to these worthy organizations -- and by sharing their messages with your friends.

Yours,
Ramya Raghavan
YouTube Nonprofits & Activism

Drink Dirty Water for Charity

Would you drink a glass of filthy water? That's the question YouTube user ijustine is asking in an effort to raise money for YouTube nonprofit partner charity:water:



Now ijustine is trying to create a viral awareness storm about the need for increased access to safe drinking water in developing countries by asking YouTube users to make videos in which they too hold up a glass of dirty water.

She's succeeding -- in the past two days, 98 people have uploaded response videos.

She'll be mashing up the best response videos and playing them at the first-ever Twestival, a Twitter-organized charity event that will take place in over 185 cities to raise money for charity:water. To find a Twestival near you, you can visit www.twestival.com.