Working Towards a Day When Everyone Has Clean Water

There are 663 million people in the world living without clean water. At charity: water, where I’m a Creative Producer, we’re working to change that.

As an NYC-based nonprofit focused on ending the global water crisis, we’ve funded 24,537 sustainable water projects around the world so far. By working with local partner organizations on the ground to implement these solutions, we've brought clean water to more than 7.4 million people. Access to clean water means women and children no longer have to walk long distances to collect water. It means the risk of disease from parasites and other harmful bacteria rapidly drops. It saves lives.

In September, I led a nine-day trip to Ethiopia with three teammates. Our goal was to capture content that would allow us to deconstruct the entire process of building a water project, so that we could tell the story of the people, parts, and pieces behind bringing a community clean water. Storytelling is a huge part of our ethos at charity: water, and as a creative team, we're constantly thinking about new and compelling ways to connect our supporters to their impact in the field. This was my fourth trip to Ethiopia and my sixth trip to the field with charity: water.

Once there, we spent time with a team from our local partner organization in Ethiopia, the Relief Society of Tigray (REST), as they drilled for clean water in a community in Northern Ethiopia. Our partners are experts in bringing people clean water and understanding the needs of each community – they are essential to the work we do at charity: water. During this trip, we saw the REST team members work, share meals together in the field, and hang out during their off hours. These teams are on the road 10 out of 12 months every year to maximize the amount of work they can do in the dry season. They work 29 out of 30 days every month. They’ll spend two to three days in each community drilling a well, and, as soon as they’re done, they move onto the next community. They're incredibly dedicated to the work that they do.

As one 12-year-old boy told us on a trip to Ethiopia in 2016, “Pure water is the best medicine.” My hope is that these photos and anecdotes help shed light on the water crisis in Ethiopia as well as the amazing men and women who have dedicated their lives to ending it.

Sept. 21, 8 am

We’re on our way to a remote community with the drilling team. The two trucks pictured are the drilling rig and the compressor. Most of the locations where we work are pretty remote, and getting to them can be a challenge. The dirt roads are often rocky, so we usually travel in Land Rovers that can handle the rough terrain.

Sept. 21, 12 pm

A drilling team member picks up a plastic casing to put into the drilled hole in the ground, where it will protect against the collapse of the interior walls. The average depth of a well is 125 feet.

Sept. 21, 2 pm

The team stops for lunch. It’s common for community members to set up a cooking area, where they make coffee and food for the drillers, close to the drilling site. This is a typical lunch of injira and hot meat sauce for the team when they’re working in the field.

Sept. 21, 5 pm

We set up our final shoot of the day: portraits of the drilling team in a tef field. To help capture meaningful photos of every team member, we asked each one to bring a tool or material that is important to his job and to wear his normal work clothes. When we showed these photos at charity: water’s end of year gala, we included information about where each subject is from, how many children he has, and what drives him to work such a difficult job. Nicher, pictured here, is the assistant driller. He is married with five children. He’s been working at REST for 20 years.

Sept. 22, 12 pm

It’s our last morning with the drilling team. The team sits on the back of the drilling rig, laughing because nobody has ever asked them to pose for a group photo on the back of the drilling rig before. Shortly after this photo is taken, they have us put on their construction hats and snap photos of us.

Sept. 22, 1 pm

We pose with the drilling team and our partners at REST for a final group photo on our last day with the drillers.

Sept. 22, 4 pm

Afewerk, the head driller, looks through photo albums with his family. We spend an afternoon with them in an effort to learn more about what his life is like outside of work during the two months of the year when he isn’t drilling. It’s hard for him to be away from his family for so long, but he speaks of the sense of duty he feels for the people of Ethiopia who lack access to clean water. He tells us, “It’s my responsibility to help people – to serve them. We are Ethiopian. If you have power to help, you should help."

Sept. 23, 8 am

A drone flies over one of the last communities we visited – a community without clean water. Though beautiful from above, it’s one of the harshest environments I’ve seen. During the rainy season (two months of the year), the community collects water from a pond nearby, a breeding ground for illness and infection. The community shares the pond with livestock; women collect water next to cows standing in and drinking the same water. During the dry season (the other ten months of the year), community members make the four-hour round-trip journey to a river that flows at the bottom of a ravine.

Sept. 24, 9 am

A woman carries water back from a pond in a jerry can. In this community, each home is limited to one can per day to preserve water. Although the water is dirty and shared with livestock, the community considers itself lucky to have a source nearby for two months of the year.

Sept. 24, 11 am

A young girl holds a glass of water taken from the pond. The burden of collecting water disproportionately falls on women and children in these regions, impeding education and opportunities to work, and increasing exposure to contaminants.

Sept. 24, 1 pm

This path leads to a farther water source used by the community when the pond dries up. Women and children are sometimes attacked by hyenas and baboons while walking the path. Several children bear scars on their faces from these encounters. And those are not the only threats that line the path; women speak of men who assaulted them as they carried the 40-pound jerry cans home.

Sept. 26, 10 am

A girl washes her hands with clean water from a well in her community. This community gained access to a water point in 2011, so it has had clean water for about 7 years. On our last day, our team visits this community and hears stories about the impact of clean water, and how it's improved the health and well-being of the entire community.

Images by Jeremy Snell / charity: water