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  • 15 hours ago
In recognition of World Water Day on March 22, 2026, Bondi’s water taps are being “turned off” as part of an installation by Liquid IV bringing attention to the reality that 1 in 4 people worldwide don’t have access to clean water.

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00:00It was annoying.
00:01Yeah.
00:01I just came for a bit of a run, parched, thirsty, and there was nothing there, so I
00:05had to look somewhere else.
00:07I mean, we take it for granted in Australia, and we've got a lot of fresh, clean water,
00:10so it's good to know that there are people out there raising awareness for it.
00:14Yeah, definitely something I learned today on my run.
00:16So it's actually a fake liquid IV branded water fountain, so for most people, you come
00:21up to it and you can see it looks like a water fountain, but there's no running water.
00:25It's a bit of a quiet privilege here that there's so many water fountains all around
00:29Sydney and Bondi Beach, and Liquid IV has actually been branded on the water fountains at Bondi
00:35as the official hydration partner for the last year or so, so we just felt like it was
00:39a really fitting place to spark a conversation about the cleaning water crisis.
00:44In a country like Australia, where we have safe drinking water and we sometimes take
00:50it for granted, I think being made aware of the broader global challenge is really important,
00:59but often an invisible issue. So this kind of initiative I think is really important for
01:05I guess making that a visible issue, building awareness and understanding about the issue.
01:12The funding gap is significant if we are to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6, which is safe
01:17drinking water for all. It's a very effective way to, I guess, encourage people to reflect and pause
01:27and really engage with the issue of global water and sanitation. You know, it's easier
01:32to kind of read statistics, but when you actually have a real experience of wanting water but not
01:40getting it, I think that it brings home the reality that billions of people face on a daily basis.
01:46I'm on my morning walk as usual and I came past one of these liquid IV stands, I thought I'd
01:52grab some water and it didn't work.
01:53From South Africa, so we had a water shortage issue over there many years ago. People were having to
01:59live on like as much as what a normal American would live on per week in one day. So I
02:04know about the
02:06scarcity but not so much about the other side of things. Yeah, it's a pretty powerful message to say that
02:12not everyone has the luxury of getting access to clean drinking water. I didn't know that particular
02:19statistic but I've had the fortune of actually traveling to lots of countries around the world and
02:23every time I come back to Australia I just realize how lucky we are to actually have access to
02:28fresh drinking water. A lot of countries are not so lucky. I think it's so important to raise awareness
02:33because especially in a place like Bondi Australia, like we use water so much, it's such a big part of
02:38our everyday life. Inadequate access to water and sanitation undoubtedly has a huge impact on women
02:46and children and really exacerbates gender inequality in many, many countries. I think the way in which
02:55it does that is multifold. I think one of the most visible examples is the amount of time that women
03:03and
03:04girls spend collecting water. In many parts of the world, women and girls will spend hours a day
03:11collecting water from distant and unsafe water sources. But the impacts go beyond that. There's
03:19impacts on education. Girls are less likely to go to school and stay at school if the school lacks
03:26adequate water and sanitation facilities. There's livelihood impacts and economic impacts of having
03:33to care for children that are unwell due to unsafe water and sanitation.
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