As college students are gearing up for the fall semester, student leaders at an Atlanta HBCU are building momentum for Water Wars Atlanta.
Water Wars Atlanta is a new philanthropic project led by Morehouse students Richard Taylor and Jarrad Lawson aimed to resolve the world water crisis through a large-scale water balloon fight.
Taylor and Lawson were inspired to create the spring semester event after seeing the University of Kentucky’s efforts to break the world record for the largest water balloon fight. In addition to the pure fun of water balloon fighting, Water Wars Atlanta takes a charitable twist.
“The first main objective is to raise awareness about the water crisis…the second initiative is to connect the metro-Atlanta schools and hopefully to join enough connections where we break the world record which is the third goal of the water balloon [fight],” Taylor told BlackAmericaWeb.com
Water Wars Atlanta has teamed up with the Water Project to help build wells in places that are desolate for clean water.
“Nearly a billion people around the world lack access to clean water. Usually it’s the women in these sub-Saharan African countries that collect water. They’ll walk on average of four miles a day and carry about 44 lbs of contaminated water that they know is contaminated. They use that water for drinking, bathing, cleaning the dishes, things of that nature,” Taylor said.
In order to break the world record, Water Wars Atlanta will need to recruit 11,000 participants and have 236,000 water balloons. Each participant will donate $5 to contribute to the project.
“So, you think if we get the world record number that’s $55,000 raised for the water project and it only cost $7,000 to build a well. So we will be building wells and sustaining clean water for many people in these African countries,” Taylor explained.
So far, the team has reached out to students from schools such as Clark Atlanta University, Spelman College, Georgia Tech, Georgia State, and other surrounding universities to participate in the project. The project’s buzz is spreading so quickly that a Harvard basketball player recently tweeted about the project.
Project coordinators are looking forward to making Water Wars Atlanta a yearly event that can inspire other colleges around the country.
“We are looking to hopefully do it again annually and we hope to spread to different cities. So for example, we could have a Water Wars Boston to where the colleges in the Boston area can try to break the world record,” Taylor said. “You know if you think about it if we need 13,000 people to break the world record each $5 donation goes toward the water project then we’ll be doing some good there.”
Taylor said they are currently focused on getting corporate sponsorships and increasing student involvement in this great cause.
“So now it’s time to really get other people involved. We feel like if you tell people about it they might forget it, but when you get people involved they will remember it for a lifetime and we want to make an impact here in Atlanta and sub-Saharan Africa,” Taylor said.
For more information on this project visit WaterWarsAtlanta.com
