We Are Water Foundation
Created in 2010, the We Are Water Foundation is a Roca initiative which reinforces the brand’s historic engagement with society. On a planet with about 768 million people without access to drinking water and 2.7 billion without basic sanitation infrastructure, the Foundation aims its actions at achieving two main objectives. First, to contribute to the spread of a new culture of water which is more caring, just and sustainable, and second, help the world’s poorest and those with major water and sanitation problems.
In its five-year history, the Foundation has made significant progress in gaining visibility through innovative and internationally-oriented efforts that have allowed it to participate in some of the most significant global initiatives in its field. In 2014 it continued working with the “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge” program, promoted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which aims to design a new, high-tech and universal application toilet that allows converting human waste into a source of value creation.
The We Art Water Film Festival, an international competition that promotes the production of audiovisual works related to the world of water, is among the most outstanding initiatives which has best helped to spread the Foundation’s message. Its second edition, covering any problem related to water resources in the world, managed to quadruple participation of the first edition, attracting the involvement of over 2,200 people from 82 countries.
The We Are Water Foundation celebrated World Water Day with awareness activities worldwide and lectures on the theme “Water and energy”.
Other awareness-raising activities undertaken in 2014 include the participation in the World Water Day (March 22) with various actions calling for social action and awareness; holding round tables in various countries at the World Toilet Day; and the organization of the exhibitions “Water, the right to a decent life” and “Water Lives”, in collaboration with Doctors Without Borders. The Foundation has also participated in the Metropolis World Congress, held in India, with a speech focusing on the problem of water in cities, and in the second International Conference on Oceanographic Research, organized by Unesco in Barcelona, where it stressed the influence of oceans and the water cycle. The innovative nature and the international outlook of the Foundation’s actions have led it to receive the iAgua award for most viral content in spreading its awareness message.
Since its inception, the Foundation’s cooperative activities have benefited 200,000 people through 20 projects in 14 countries. Projects developed in 2014 include digging wells and installing water pumps in Andhra Pradesh (India); building wells in Zabzugu (Ghana); rehabilitating water and sanitation systems in the region of the Philippines affected by Typhoon Haiyan; improving water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in Zagora (Morocco) schools, and building facilities to ensure water safety in Bangladesh schools. These projects are developed in collaboration with organizations of the prestige of Unicef, the Vicente Ferrer Foundation, World Vision and Educo.
In 2014, the Foundation worked in cooperation projects carried out in India, Ghana, the Philippines, Morocco and Bangladesh.
The vision of the We Are Water Foundation is to continue growing worldwide, especially in countries where the Roca Group can, through its activities, participate more intensively to identify collaboration projects and contribute to the solution for water and sanitation problems.