JLS have got used to signing autographs in recent years, but March saw the group’s founder Oritsé Williams sign is first ‘watergraph’ as he fronted WaterAid’s HSBC-sponsored Aquascript – an interactive water display celebrating World Water Day.
The water fountain, literally a wall of water which spells out names of cause donors, was created at Reuters’ Plaza in London’s Canary Wharf to promote World Water Day on 22 March.
To have their name lit up in H2O, WaterAid supporters can either text the word ‘everyone’ and their own name to 78866, or tweet their name using the hashtag #Everyoneeverywhere.
The JLS star launched the awareness-building stunt with his very own pledge – thus becoming the first person’ who’s name was displayed on the aquascript,
Oritsé has supported WaterAid for several years now and back in 2012 he visited projects in Uganda with JLS to support WaterAid.
‘In the UK we take water for granted, so it’s hard to imagine that one in seven children around the world have no choice but to rely on water so dirty it could kill them,’ he outlines.
‘In Uganda I met kids who regularly missed school after getting sick from drinking dirty water, or dropped out altogether because there was nowhere safe and private to go to the toilet. It’s a tragedy that children are missing out on their education because they don’t have access to water and sanitation, which is why I’m proud to support WaterAid’s mission to bring safe, clean water to everyone everywhere by 2030.’
Comment
HSBC is WaterAid’s single largest corporate partner and its HSBC Water Programme aims to provide safe drinking water to more than one million people and sanitation to 1.9 million in Asia and Africa.
Launched in 2012, HSBC is supporting the Water Programme with US$100m over a five-year period in a four-way partnership which also includes WWF and Earthwatch as well as WaterAid.
The objective of the global programme is to benefit communities in need and provide safe water, information and aid more efficient management of vital freshwater resources.
Water is a huge and growing global challenge and the partnership followed an HSBC-commissioned report by Frontiers Economics on the economic value of water – which found that universal access to safe water and sanitation would amount to $220bn global economic gain, with a $5 return on every $1 invested.
Indeed, it is because water is demonstrably proven to be vital to building healthy communities and developing national economies that HSBC chose to invest its time, money and resources in the HSBC Water Programme.
‘I saw the impact of WaterAid’s work first-hand when I visited Ghana. In one school we visited, by simply installing toilet and hand washing facilities, attendance and enrolment had increased by almost 25%,’ says Chris Goode, the European coordinator of the HSBC Water Programme of his visits to WaterAid projects in 2013.
‘The HSBC Water Programme is funding improvements to so many lives and we’re really proud to support WaterAid.’
At the stunt launch, WaterAid’s Chief Executive Barbara Frost said that HSBC’s Water Programme will transform lives of women, children and poor communities and improve social and economic development where there is great need.”
Links
Aquascript YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zWPwzRIH5w
WaterAid Website
http://www.wateraid.org/news/news/hsbc-launches-five-year-programme-with-wateraid
The WaterHub Website
