The Newport News Waterworks Department recently spearheaded an awareness campaign and fundraiser for the water industry’s charity of choice – Water for People. Water for People is an international nonprofit humanitarian organization with a mission to bring safe water and sanitation to four million people in nine countries.

Local support for Water For People began in 2005 and with a continuing public partnership, more than $180,000 has been raised for the charity. Waterworks employees continue to be very generous as they participated in an employee workplace giving campaign. Waterworks received a generous $1,000 donation from the Rotary Club of James City County which has been a supporter for several years.

Despite decades of development activity by nonprofits and governments, there still are 1.8 billion people in the world without access to reliable safe water and 2.4 billion people lacking access to adequate sanitation. Women and children spend more than four hours walking for water each day, and more than 840,000 people die each year from water-related diseases. Water For People helps improve quality of life by supporting locally sustainable drinking water resources, sanitation facilities, and hygiene education programs for people in developing countries.