Water Hour 2010: An incredible success!

Well, the world’s first Water Hour was June 11th 2010 – and what a fantastic celebration it was! A whopping 66 different environmental organizations promoted Water Hour through Twitter, not to mention a huge number of individuals, spreading the word to well over 400,000 followers combined! And that doesn’t count everyone who heard about it through facebook, through TV and radio interviews and press coverage on a plethora of websites and blogs, as well as through flyers and email shout-outs from so many dedicated supporters. We’ve had wonderful feedback and participation, and if you haven’t posted yet about your celebration, we want to hear about it! Tell us about it on this page.

Be sure to read the great posts here and visit us on Twitter, facebook, YouTube and Flickr to see all the ways people took part! Did you miss the event? No problem, you can still participate anytime by posting on our Water Moments, Ideas and Declare pages. Let people know about your own projects on the Collaborate page. And please submit your thoughts and comments on Water Hour or anything water-related here:

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Bob Isenberger
from ,
Posted 2011/06/16
at 10:25 PM

Note: This website was used for Water Hour 2010, and is now closed for input.

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Douglas Worts
from Toronto, Canada
Posted 2010/06/28
at 03:17 PM

I have lived in Toronto for over 30 years. Rarely did I have any consciousness of living on Lake Ontario. That all changed when I started sailing dinghys in Toronto harbour. Being out on the water with the specific purpose of harnessing wind and water to move my boat forward, I became aware of the city in a completely new way - expansive, impressive, cohesive. Looking back at the city from the water made me aware of how unconscious of the lake most of the time. Going sailing, canoeing or kayaking is an easy way to have an immersion experience in nature - and it happens very shortly after you leave the shore!

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Eve
from Richmond Hill, Canada
Posted 2010/06/18
at 03:02 PM

My mother who is 94, still lives in her house in Pickering and she is still on a well and a septic system. She is surrounded by suburbia but also by trees so she does not really see the big houses around her. They are all on municipal water and sewers. On water day we had to have one of the few people in the area that will deal with wells come in. Her well had silted up and had run dry. One man went down the well in a bucket on a winch and cleaned out the silt. It was a gamble. Would the well recover?? I am pleased to tell you a week later that the well which is a dug well, now has 7 feet of clear water in the bottom. It is clear and beautiful water. She can now stay in her house!!

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Dr Chabad De Jaeger
from Cape Town, South Africa
Posted 2010/06/16
at 04:32 PM

We celebrated Water hour on the FIRST DAY of the World Cup Soccer 2010 in Cape Town. What a SPLASH... also Dr Masuru Emoto hosted a series of workshops in Cape Town. Instead of celebrating with alcohol we drank fresh mountain water from Table Mountain... cool, refreshing and safe.

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Christine Gebel
from Toronto, Canada
Posted 2010/06/12
at 07:50 PM

I was at a class, an ecotheology class! When water hour arrived we watched a video entitled: Water - Sacred & Profaned. It was very good!

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Lesley Kelly
from Mansfield, Canada
Posted 2010/06/12
at 07:34 PM

I was at a charity event that was hosted at a beautiful location on the shores of Lake Simcoe. At 8 p.m. I was with dear friends and we spent the time extolling the virtues of living on or near water..how it made us feel, how it completed our vision of the perfect environment for living. It certainly made us appreciate the bounty that we have here in Ontario. There was fresh water as far as the eye could see, and even though most people in the room were from the area and had seen the lake shore at twilight a million times before, I could see and hear that they never tired of the joy and beauty that the lake view offered. We are blessed and darn lucky!

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Ann Ewan
from TORONTO,
Posted 2010/06/12
at 05:04 PM

For Water Hour, I took a walk with my husband along the Don River. My sister reminded me by email to take garbage bags!

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Margot Fish
from Toronto, ON, Canada
Posted 2010/06/12
at 03:55 PM

Walked along Lake Ontario with a friend and sat to gaze at the water and people enjoying it. Water is precious. I sent the message to as many folks as I could across Canada, USA, Ireland and South Africa. I'm hoping more will share with us. Margot

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    Is Water Hour just about one hour of awareness a year?

    Absolutely not! Here's how Water Hour works: think about starting an engine. Your Water Moment is like an emotional spark that ignites the fuel, and the Water Hour celebration is the explosion of creativity and outreach that follows. Now the engine is running – so declaring your commitment to take action carries the inspiration of Water Hour forward to make a difference year-round. Continue to post your moments, ideas, comments and declarations throughout the year.

    Water facts

    Some mind-blowing facts about the water crisis.

    • Your body is 66% water.
    • If the world’s water fit into a one gallon bucket, the amount of fresh water available to us all would equal only one tablespoon.
    • The Earth is a closed system, which means that the same water that we use today has been here for more than 2 billion years.
    • Worldwide, we withdraw 1000 trillion gallons of water from lakes, rivers and aquifers each year.
    • One fifth of the world’s freshwater fish are endangered or extinct.
    • In developing countries, 90% of sewage and 70% of industrial wastes are discharged directly into water courses without treatment.
    • One billion people do not have safe water to drink.
    • Each day 10,000 kids younger than 5 die from water-related diseases.
    • In Africa or Asia, many women walk an average of 6 km to fetch water.
    • In Canada, ninety three First Nation communities were under “Boil Water” orders in 2008.
    • Half the world’s hospital beds are occupied by people ill from water-borne illnesses.
    • 50% of the world’s wetlands have been lost since 1900.
    • Floods and droughts affect one in three people worldwide.
    • One drop of oil can pollute 25 litres of water.
    • It takes 39,000 gallons of water to manufacture one new car.
    • It takes 150 gallons of water to produce one loaf of bread.
    • Five big food and beverage companies consume 575 billion litres of water a year - enough to supply every person on the planet with their daily water needs.
    • We use 23,000 different chemicals in our daily lives and in industrial processes.
    • In the US, 40% of all rivers, lakes and streams are too dangerous for swimming, fishing or drinking because of toxic runoff.
    • 80% of China’s rivers are too polluted to support aquatic life.
    • There are hundreds of “dead zones” in the oceans where no life can exist, thanks to pollution from fertilizers and sewage.
    • The world’s largest garbage dump is floating in the Pacific Ocean – the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is 90 feet deep with accumulated plastic trash, spanning twice the size of Texas!
    • Life on land depends on the oxygen generated by life in the global ocean.

    Thank you for taking part! Be sure to add your name and email to our mailing list so we can keep you informed leading up to the big event.

    Here are our top five picks for ways to celebrate Water Hour!

    1. Take action for the Gulf - Donate to a charity working on the cleanup efforts in the Gulf of Mexico, such as those listed on charitynavigator.com. Tweet @BarackObama or your country's politicians to restrict or phase out offshore drilling. You could also send affirmations and prayers to the Gulf of Mexico and all people and creatures that depend on it - post these on our home page, tweet them (using #waterhour), or share them in a gathering.
    2. Walk, canoe, swim at a favourite water place. Take photos, tweet about the experience (using #waterhour), real time or afterward. Did you see water that's in trouble? Tell us about what you did on our home page, and upload photos to our Flickr group or facebook group.
    3. Have a Water Hour party - Gather with families, friends, collegues, and share stories of your most amazing experiences with water. Toast water after each story. Don't forget to post them at www.waterhour.org/watermoments. Play water themed charades and water themed music, and pass the hat to raise money for a water-related charity of your choice. Tell us about it on our home page and upload pictures/video of your party to our Flickr group or Youtube group.
    4. Do a 24 hour 1 gallon challenge - Can your family go for 24 hours using only 1 gallon of water, like millions of families do every day? Start the challenge at 8PM on June 11th. Post about the experience on our home page, our facebook group, or tweet about it using #waterhour.
    5. Declare your own personal commitment to action; whatever it may be, large or small - you could pledge to stop using bottled water, install a rain barrel, or boycott household cleaners with nasty chemicals. Invite others in the Water Hour community to make the same pledge – see if you can get a chain reaction going! Post your declaration at www.waterhour.org/declare.