2026 Walk for Water Changes 14,000 Lives Through Safe, Clean Water

When people come together—passionate about a cause and yearning to make a difference—lives are changed. 

This is what happened on Saturday, March 21, 2026, at Riverfront Park in North Charleston. 5,033 people gathered for Water Mission’s 20th annual Walk for Water to raise awareness, educate others, and experience the walk that millions of women and girls take every day.  

Together with friends like you, we raised more than $700,000 to bring safe, clean water to more than 14,000 people around the world—exceeding our Walk goal! 

Participants walked 3 miles round trip, simulating the daily journey made by women and children in many rural communities. They carried empty buckets to a halfway point where they filled them with dirty water, reflecting the unsafe water that many people collect from rivers, ponds, rainwater catchments, and wells.  

Then, participants carried their buckets the remaining distance, feeling how heavy the buckets were when filled with water. 

Virginia and Lila have participated in the Walk for Water for multiple years with their church, St. Philip’s Church. They are close in age to Neema and Recho—two girls who walk daily for their water in Gwandi, Tanzania. Walking for water has helped Virginia and Lila empathize with girls around the world. 

Along the second half of the route, participants had the opportunity to weigh their own buckets and then feel the weight of the average jerrycan carried in rural communities—40 pounds. This allowed Walkers to grasp how truly heavy the burden is, especially when it’s part of one’s daily routine. 

Melley, a Walker from the African country of Eritrea, was deeply impacted by her experience carrying the weight of water like her grandmother used to. 

“My grandma used to walk miles and miles [in Eritrea] to get water for her family, and I have 10 or 11 aunties and uncles, so she had to go twice a day to get water for family," Melley shared. “[Today] I felt the weight my grandma had to carry—not the physical weight, but also the mental weight as she had to go miles and miles to get water, so I felt proud to feel her pain.” 

At the end of the Walk route, Walkers dumped their buckets of dirty water into a pool and watched a Water Mission Living Water Treatment System treat and purify the water. This is just one of the many innovative safe water solutions our engineers build around the world. 

In addition to the Walk itself, the event featured other activities, such as Toilet Toss, a kids’ area, and a prayer wall, as well as many opportunities to learn more about the global water crisis and Water Mission’s solutions.  

Many Walkers chose to form or join Walk Teams to enjoy the day with their community and encourage each other while walking. The variety of sponsor tents, food trucks, and games always makes the Walk for Water a fun event for the whole family, friend groups, churches, schools, and individual walkers.

Thank you for making it possible for 14,000 people to receive access to safe water and for safe water to continue flowing in the communities where we work. Your enthusiastic support and partnership is transforming lives around the world.