DENVER, Colo. (March 23, 2017) – The Clean Water Here social-media initiative to promote safe drinking water was launched today in celebration of UN Water World Water Day. The overall social-media voice of the campaign exceeded 790 million people.

Thanks to the support of Pitbull, Pink, Bruno Mars, Britney Spears, Maroon 5, Ed Sheeran, Pharrell Williams, Kesha, Sting, Fergie, Ryan Seacrest, Jason Derulo, Christina Aguilera, Ziggy Marley, Shania Twain, Seal, Andra Day, Seal, Pentatonix, Natasha Bedingfield, Nick Jonas, Juanes, Niall Horan, Fifth Harmony, Sean Mendes and more, this campaign encouraged and empowered the public to lend their social voices to help people understand the nature and scope of the global water crisis by promoting safe drinking water here in the United States on UN World Water Day.

UN World Water Day is coordinated by UN-Water and the 2017 campaign is led by UN Environment, UN-HABITAT, United Nations University and the World Health Organization.

“I want to thank the celebrities and the public who used their influence through social media to support Clean Water Here ,” said Lani Dolifka, the Founder of Clean Water Here and president/CEO of Watermill Express, “There are too many communities in the United States and around the world that still don’t have access to safe drinking water. It’s particularly important for the lives of our children.”

A proud Founding Partner of Clean Water Here , Watermill Express has been providing a sustainable alternative for safe, affordable drinking water in the United States for over 30 years.

“Making the right to water a practical reality holds out the promise of transformed lives for billions of people.” said Dr. Jamie Bartram, Director of the Water Institute at the University of North Carolina, whose world-renowned work as a professor and author/editor includes dozens of academic papers and books discussing the intersection of where water and health come together. “We also must make safe water available to those robbed of their own potential by neurotoxic pollutants, like lead in Flint and elsewhere in the United States.”

Evidence shows that children exposed to lead develop neurological deficiencies, leading to issues such as childhood intellectual disabilities, hearing problems, anemia, or behavior problems. There are an estimated 600,000 new cases of child lead exposure every year worldwide. Additionally in the United States, aging infrastructure, limited funding and management capacity for disadvantaged communities, the degradation of source water, and the risks from unregulated contaminants all contribute to the growing concern domestically.

“We believe that access to safe drinking water is a basic human right,” said David Clark, the co-creator of Clean Water Here and the Founder of Cause Flash. “We commend UN-Water for its leadership on this important issue, and their ongoing work as the effective mechanism that coordinates the UN’s work on water and sanitation. Collectively, between all the parties involved, I am both pleased and proud of our ground-breaking campaign.”

ABOUT:

CLEAN WATER HERE

Founded by Watermill Express CEO Lani Dolifka, Clean Water Here promotes the need for safe drinking water in the United States. Research indicates that out-of-date plumbing, sometimes over 100 years old is delivering water through pipes that often leak contaminants into the water. In addition, old-fashioned water treatment facilities may not always address 21st-century contaminants like pesticides, industrial chemicals and arsenic. So who is most likely to be drinking this water that is known to cause disease – the poorest and most vulnerable among us. Clean Water Here is dedicated to educating the public about this important issue. For more information visit www.cleanwaterhere.org

WATERMILL EXPRESS

Clean Water Here founding partner Watermill Express is the largest drive-up pure drinking water company in the U.S. and the green alternative to prepackaged water. Watermill Express customers reuse their own clean containers to reduce pollution from single-use plastic water bottles. Founded in 1984, Watermill Express supports causes that promote the health and welfare of children and families. For more information visit www.watermillexpress.com

UN WORLD WATER DAY

World Water Day has been observed since 1993 when the United Nations General Assembly declared March 22 as the annual “World Day for Water.” Coordinated by UN Water in support of the 193 member nations of the UN, this day is devoted to implementing recommendations and promoting concrete activities within their countries regarding the world’s water resources. In addition to the UN member states, a number of NGOs promoting clean water leverage World Water Day as a time to focus public attention on the critical water issues facing the world. For more information visit www.worldwaterday.org

UN-WATER

UN-Water is the United Nations inter-agency coordination mechanism for all freshwater related issues, including sanitation. Building on a long history of coordination in the UN System, UN-Water was formalized in 2003 by the United Nations High Level Committee on Programmes. It provides the platform to address the cross-cutting nature of water and maximize system-wide coordinated action and coherence. UN-Water promotes coherence in, and coordination of, UN system actions aimed at the implementation of the agenda defined by the Millennium Declaration and the World Summit on Sustainable Development as it relates to its scope of work. For more information visit www.unwater.org

CAUSE FLASH

Created by David Clark Cause, Cause Flash is a digital platform devoted to aggregating the social media voices (Twitter, Facebook, Google+ followers) of dignitaries, celebrities, charities, brands and the public at large, so large scale social media campaigns can be launched instantly. By harnessing talent and technology to rally people around important causes that deserve immediate attention, Cause Flash elevates the human condition by inspiring and empowering people to donate funds and their own social media voices to address some of the greatest challenges of our time. For more information visit www.CauseFlash.org

MEDIA CONTACTS: Jamie Izaks, jizaks@allpointspr.com , (847) 897-7480