Water Tank Project
Crisis
Filmmaker Mary Jordan fell ill during the filming of a documentary in Ethiopia. The village in which she fell ill was part of the worldwide water crisis. Villagers would walk up to 8 hours a day to carry water back to their village. Often the effort was in vain because the water was so contaminated it was undrinkable. That was in 2007.
Solution
Back in New York, Jordan looked around for a way to fulfill the promise she made the villagers who nursed her back to health: to raise awareness of their plight. What she saw was something that first world New Yorkers saw every day, and had slipped from their awareness. Above the streets of Manhattan – on the rooftops – were the water tanks that she would come to see as icons of water and its power to create or destroy. Now, in 2014, those tanks are being reinvented as symbols for awareness of the global water crisis.
Our Contribution
Mora Water Systems is the only water desalination company to be involved in backing the Water Tank Project, www.abovethestreets.com 17,000 tanks cover the skyline of Manhattan, and which are being painted by local artists as part of one of the largest public art shows ever created. Included in the awareness program are talks, tours and social media events – just the start of a project planned for adoption in other major cities across the world.