With the tragic events in Christchurch as a result of their 2nd large earthquake, lack of drinkable water has become a serious and immediate concern.

We were moved to use our bottled water stock to help if possible and spent many hours trying to get a donation down there in the day after the quake. Managed to get 500 bottles in with a George FM collection drive which was fanstastic, but our 3 pallets of 3,600 bottles were too much for them to handle with their transport resources.

Got a call in the small hours of this morning (24th Feb) from the Govt emergency centre asking us to move our 3 pallets of donated wurld water to Whenuapai airbase. The RNZAF is airlifting supplies down to Christchurch. Wurld water is specifically going to used for the fire service and rescue teams, true heroes in these crucial hours.

Who would’ve thought our wurld water would be needed in rescue sense in New Zealand. Gives an insight in to the reason we do this, that many millions of people face water shortage issues every single day, and in some cases every single day of their lives. Sobering.

We at wurld wanted to recognise World Water Day, the 22nd of March every year. We decided to organise a march, something that allowed us to walk in the shoes of those who have to collect their water every day, and walk many kilometres to do so. This work is usually carried out by women and children, those least able to handle the heavy loads carried. Could we do it, only one way to find out, fill our vessels and start walking!

Why did we do this? We wanted to visually raise awareness of the issue, and it was important to us to march somewhere local to us, where we live and play. The where was harder, wanted to link it to fresh water even though we are surrounded by salty seas here in Auckland. And it would be great if it was also fresh water that you probably wouldn’t drink. After a good hard think we discovered Lake Pupuke was just perfect! Even better it was a 6m walk around it, about the same as the average distance a villager in Africa walks every day for their water.

So on Saturday the 20th we marched the 6km around Lake Pupuke with different sized vessels full of water, all sorts were on show, milk bottles, jerry cans, buckets! Click the play button on the slide show above to get a flavour of the march. (You can make it full screen by clicking the four arrows on the bottom right of the slide show).

We’re going to make this an annual event, so mark Saturday, 19th March 2011, in your diaries now!

wurld’s first press article! North Shore Times wrote an article on wurld water, and as you can guess, we are all quite excited by it. Hopefully the first of many more, as people discover the wurld of difference we can make by switching bottled water brands.

Well here’s our first press release, read it and learn a bit more about wurld. Then forward it on to all your media friends, let’s get the word about wurld out!

Here’s a website, Scoop.co.nz, that has posted it, we have also pasted it below to read.

Saving the ‘wurld’ one drop at a time

‘wurld’ is a new brand of bottled water with a difference – 100% of the profit funds clean water projects in the developing world.

The company’s vision is to be much more than just a bottled water company. “wurld water offers consumers the chance to switch to a bottled water brand where the destination of profits is life changing,” says ‘wurld’ co-founder Jared Honore. “Currently 1 in 6 people in the world do not have access to clean water, we want to change that!”

‘wurld’ has launched at North Shore’s Christmas Wonderland event which runs until Sunday 6th December, where they are an event sponsor and are also selling their new water to event goers. (www.christmaswonderland.org.nz)

‘wurld’ founders, Jared and Ruth Honore, returned from London in 2008, where they spent 3 years on their OE furthering their finance careers with the BBC and a top UK law firm. They returned to have their first baby (Hugo), to spend time with their late brother-in-law who passed away from cancer earlier this year, and to settle back in to life on the North Shore. “After coming back to NZ and taking some time off for the birth of our baby” says Jared, “I was keen to find an opportunity to use both our business skills to help those in need, instead of climbing back in to the corporate world, so we created ‘wurld’ water to do just that.”

Spending a number of his childhood years in Zambia, Jared has always had a very real perspective on poverty, and Ruth was exposed first hand to the issues when they both visited Africa in 2006 for a few months. It was from this trip and other trips through remote parts of Asia that the passion was ignited for the ‘wurld’ concept.

“We have identified 5 key areas we believe are core to building healthier and stronger communities, Water, Food, Health, Environment and Love. Each new product will be linked to these areas of need”, says Ruth. “We see bottled water as our first product, but want to build a brand where all products are directly linked to their cause.”

‘wurld’ has what they call a “little less conversation, a little more action” approach, so in line with the 5 causes, ‘wurld’ supporters volunteer their time freely on the 5th day of each month in a local community project or event.

Charity sceptics rejoice, Jared and Ruth have made this venture possible by Ruth taking up part-time work, living off savings and several house-sits between living back with Jared’s parents. “We won’t be taking a salary from ‘wurld’ at least for the first year” says Ruth. ‘wurld’ is a registered charity under the Charities Act 2005 and operate the business as a Charitable Trust. This is all towards ensuring consumers can have confidence in ‘wurld’s motivations, in fact they sponsored their first project in a Samoan village before the tsunami without having even sold a bottle!

For more information or photos of ‘wurld’ bottles or founders, Jared and Ruth Honore, please contact Ruth on 021 902 712

www.wurld.org.nz

wurld funded this project just before the tragic tsunami in October, so we were very concerned for the safety of those involved when we heard the news.

The village men were lucky because they were to be working on the project when the tsunami hit, but everyone got out in time after the earthquake. The project had been started but fortunately not destroyed. There was some minor damage to a rock wall the men had built, but they’ve fixed that and are keeping going. The supplies were all in a secure location and not washed away.

what’s the water issue?:

• The source for their water currently is a pipe from a river in a nearby village. When heavy rain comes, the pipe water is tainted brown and is unfit for drinking or cooking. Further to this, sometimes the pipes get turned off for no apparent reason and they have to start fetching water.
• The village does have a small river which forms the eastern border of the village, and this has a freshwater spring bubbling up. This area is cemented off, forming a very small reservoir. But it’s not big enough for practical use and the clean water runs into the river unused. Plus, when heavy rain comes, the water is tainted brown and is unfit for drinking or cooking.
• This project will create a vaita’ele or freshwater pool with the spring. The small existing reservoir will be covered and feed in to the large pool, which will be used as a source of clean, fresh water to be used for drinking and cooking, as well as for laundry and bathing.
• Funds will be used to buy cement and other supplies. The village will provide all labour and the services of a carpenter to oversee construction.
• This project will serve around 350 people in 40 households.

who’s running it?: We have funded it through an organisation called ‘Water Charity’. They have an initiative called ‘Appropriate Projects’ where they identify small but critical water and sanitation projects worldwide. All projects are less than US$500 and must be completed within a month. No bureaucracy, appropriate technology and high immediate impact (just what we like).

when’s it happening: We (Jared & Ruth) visited the project on 14th November, and it should be all finished by the end of November. Plus, it will be named after wurld!

cost: US$500, and this project has been funded before we’ve even sold a bottle of wurld water… so get buying and we can do much more!

why: We chose this project because of the close link the Pacific Islands have with NZ. It’s great to help your neighbours!

For more info, have a look at the Appropriate Projects website.

We’ve just been to see the project, so we’ll put more photos and video up really soon!