About the UNICEF Tap Project
What Is the UNICEF Tap Project?
In 2007, the UNICEF Tap Project was born in New York City based on a simple concept: restaurants would ask their patrons to donate $1 or more for the tap water they usually enjoy for free, and all funds raised would support UNICEF’s efforts to bring clean and accessible water to millions of children around the world.
Since its inception in 2007, the UNICEF Tap Project has raised nearly $3 million in the U.S. and has helped provide clean water for millions of children globally. Now in its sixth year, the award-winning UNICEF Tap Project, a nationwide campaign sponsored by the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, will return during World Water Week, March 19–25. The first program of its kind, the UNICEF Tap Project has become a dynamic movement that affords everyone the opportunity to help provide the world’s children with safe, clean water.
Through numerous fundraising and volunteer activities, the UNICEF Tap Project celebrates the clean water we enjoy on a daily basis by encouraging celebrity, restaurant, volunteer, corporate, and government supporters to give this vital resource to children in developing countries. The concept is basic and compelling: “When You Take Water, Give Water.”
2012 UNICEF Tap Project Funds will specifically target Togo, Vietnam, Mauritania, and Cameroon.
UNICEF’s Role
UNICEF has saved more children’s lives than any other humanitarian organization, and UNICEF is committed to doing whatever it takes to achieve the goal of reaching the day when ZERO children die of preventable causes. Currently, UNICEF works in more than 100 countries around the world to improve access to safe water and sanitation facilities in schools and communities, and to promote safe hygiene practices.
Millennium Development Goal target of clean drinking water met
The world has met the Millennium Development Goal target of halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water, well in advance of the MDG 2015 deadline, according to a report issued today by UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO). Between 1990 and 2010, more than two billion people gained access to improved drinking water sources, such as piped supplies and protected wells.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “Today we recognize a great achievement for the people of the world. This is one of the first MDG targets to be met. The successful efforts to provide greater access to drinking water are a testament to all who see the MDGs not as a dream, but as a vital tool for improving the lives of millions of the poorest people.”
“For children this is especially good news,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. “Every day more than 3,000 children die from diarrheal diseases. Achieving this goal will go a long way to saving children’s lives.”
Lake warned that victory could not yet be declared as at least 11% of the world’s population—783 million people—are still without access to safe drinking water, and billions without sanitation facilities.
“The numbers are still staggering,” he said, “But the progress announced today is proof that MDG targets can be met with the will, the effort and the funds.”
The report highlights, however, that the world is still far from meeting the MDG target for sanitation, and is unlikely to do so by 2015. Only 63% of the world now have improved sanitation access, a figure projected to increase to only 67% by 2015, well below the 75% aim in the MDGs. Currently 2.5 billion people still lack improved sanitation.
