Would you want to drink this? One Water designs “dirty” water packaging to raise awareness for World Water Day 2017.

From my own experience it seems as if the only times that water is discussed is to either complain about its price (the classic: “£4 for a bottle of water!”) or whilst travelling to point out how the water tastes slightly yet strangely different.

It is safe to say that most of us in our affluent and bountiful lifestyles, full of new technology and the latest health fads, take clean water for granted. In fact as I write this I am sipping on a glass of chilled, filtered water without thinking twice about it. For us it is one of the most basic human rights and as simple as turning on a tap.

However as we all know in the back of our minds, far away from our direct view and the bustle of first world cities with their multitudes of Starbucks and Costa coffees, there are thousands upon thousands of people without access to clean water. It is estimated that even in 2017 1.8 billion people in the world are putting themselves at risk and contracting a myriad of horrific diseases such as cholera and typhoid due to their drinking systems being contaminated.

It’s #WorldWaterDay – but 1 in 10 people worldwide STILL don’t have access to clean water. That’s not right. Please RT if you agree. pic.twitter.com/soWiFReF8u

— WaterAid UK (@WaterAidUK) March 22, 2017

To thrust this incredibly important issue back into the limelight and the public’s fore thoughts just in time for World Water Day, One Water have designed a new sleeve for their bottles that makes it appear as if the liquid inside is dirty so that we too can experience, even if just in sight, drinking brown and murky water which for so many is their only way of life.

Duncan Goose, founder of One Water, said: “It seems counter-intuitive to be trying to sell a bottle of water that looks dirty, but we think it’s a useful moment of reflection in our busy days and an opportunity to support a business that pours its profits into clean water for everyone rather than into the bank accounts of corporations.”

By summer of 2017 One Water have predicted that they will have raised £15million for water projects and hope that by 2020 that figure will have risen to £20million.

Mr Goose added: “If only a small proportion of the profits from the sale of every bottle of water went to clean water projects, we could have a huge impact on water issues worldwide. By drinking One Water you’re effectively saying to someone without access to clean water, ‘Have a clean drink on me.’”

The new alternative packaging is currently in their trial phase with hopes that it should reach shelves near us soon.

-@gfpvincent91