There have been many awesome water campaigns in the past several years — Charity Water, Plastic Pollution Coalition, Summit on the Summit — but perhaps are none are more clever than JoinThePipe, a brand new campaign/social network/online store all rolled into one.

 

Huge buzz has been building around the network which received the trend-setting TWOTY award and is set to launch any day now. JoinThePipe wants to create both virtual and physical "pipelines." The site will virtually link up eco-savvy people around the world, and through the purchase of a super spiffy reusable high-grade plastic bottle, members will fund well and pump projects in the regions hardest hit by water shortages.

 

As JoinThePipe's blogspot explains, "We are a community of tap water drinkers with a dream ... to build the longest pipeline in the world, long enough to bring drinking water to everyone without it." According to the creators, 50 percent of the world's population has limited access to clean drinking water, resulting in a cycle of poverty and disease that is hard to break. Meanwhile the other 50 percent is wasting huge quantities of water.

 

By harnessing this latent guilt (and/or gratitude depending on how you look at it) JoinThePipe hopes to succeed with an innovative fundraising campaign that will benefit people in the developing world while providing lasting value to those of us more fortunate — social connections to people who share similar values and a taste for Dutch high design. 

 

via: Treehugger