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Raising Awareness on World Water Day

Want to learn more about World Water Day? Find the United Nations event nearest to you here. Explore and share your own World Water Day photos through the #worldwaterday hashtag.

Around the world, more than 780 million people live without ready access to clean, safe drinking water. For the 85% of the world’s population that lives in the driest half of the planet, existing resources are becoming increasingly scarce.

To raise awareness about issues affecting water and how we access it, the United Nations has designated March 22 as World Water Day.

Among the organizations participating in this year’s World Water Day is charity: water (@charitywater), which drills water wells in small towns around the world. To raise awareness, charity: water is hosting a “water walk” in Times Square to demonstrate how difficult it is to carry water across long distances.

They’re also engaging and promoting others who are raising awareness for water access, like @rideforwater, a team of five college students who are embarking on a cross-country bicycle tour to raise money for a new well.

WaterAid (@wateraid) is also participating, and, for the past 20 days, has been sharing through Instagram the numerous ways access to clean water improves people’s lives.

Here are just a few of the many other organizations on Instagram working to bring clean water to those around the world:

• water.org, @water
• Drop in the Bucket, @dropinthebucket
• Community Water Solutions, @communitywatersolutions
• Water is Life, @waterislife
• People Water, @peoplewater
• Hurly H₂O, @hurley_h2o

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Cycling around the World with @roblutter

In 2011, Rob Lutter (@roblutter) said goodbye to his family, friends and life in London and set off on a 30,000 km cycling tour around the world. He took only a tent, bike, SLR camera and iPhone with him.

Four months later while hiding from a cold winter in a Turkish hostel, Rob discovered Instagram. “Until that point I’d been shooting only on my Canon. I’d missed so many shots because I was too slow to grab the SLR or because the subject was gone before I could get it out,” he says. “As I waited for spring in that hostel, with thousands of photos to go through, I realised that it was going to take a seriously long time to get these pictures out to people. Then I came across Instagram.”

When spring came and Rob hit the road again, he began using Instagram to share scenes from his travels. He biked out of Europe, across the Middle East, up and over the Himalayas, and through the deserts of Western China. During the hardest parts of his journey, Rob says the Instagram community helped him make it through. “The support from people around the world was incredible. Messages of encouragement would arrive every other day and there were times when I’d cycle longer and further just to reach a town in an attempt to get some Wi-Fi, to connect to Instagram! It became a positive obsession of mine.”

Two years into his journey, Rob has cycled over 15,000 km, crossed 21 borders, and raised £2000 for Water Aid. He’s now in Hong Kong preparing to head to Australia for the next leg of the trip. To tune into the rest of his journey, be sure to follow him on Instagram @roblutter and visit his website.