Social engagement

For several years now, De Watergroep and Join For Water have been cooperating on water projects in developing countries. As part of the 2019 edition of De Warmste Week, we donated 30,000 euros to the NGO. A further 10,000 euro donation was made to Stand up to Cancer.

As a public water company, social engagement is of the utmost importance to De Watergroep. Water projects in developing countries are just one of the causes we cooperate on. We often do so together with the non-governmental organisation Join For Water, which specialises in sustainable water solutions in the Global South.

DISCOUNT CAMPAIGN

At the end of 2019, during De Warmste Week [The Warmest Week] — a funding drive in aid of thousands of charitable causes, supported by radio station Studio Brussel — we launched a new campaign to support Join For Water. For every customer who switched to digital billing in December, we donated one euro to a charitable cause. This resulted in a 30,000 euro donation to Join for Water and a further 10,000 euros to Stand up to Cancer. On 24 December, Director General Hans Goosens and Chair of the Board of Directors Mieke Van Hootegem headed to Kortrijk to hand over the cheques. 

At the start of 2019, Stefan Humblet, Quality Monitoring advisor at De Watergroep, embarked on a trip to Benin. As an ambassador for our company, he spent eleven days travelling through the country with the NGO Join for Water.

Every year, De Watergroep offers one of its employees an opportunity to go on an immersion trip with Join for Water, an NGO striving for sustainable water solutions in the Global South and more conscious water consumption in Flanders. In 2019, our colleague Stefan Humblet went on an eleven-day trip to Benin. Among other places, he visited the lake village of Ganvie, the Green Keeper project (which is making sure that Lake Nokoué is not overwhelmed by aquatic plants), a Join For Water drinking water well and several local irrigation projects. His schedule was completed by a safari through the Pendjari National Park.

UNIQUE EXPERIENCE

“Every participant on the immersion journey was asked to raise sponsorship money. In the end, I managed to collect more than 8,000 euros thanks to my sponsors, colleagues, friends and family! These funds will go towards the construction and maintenance of sanitary installations in Benin”, Stefan explains. “To me, this trip was an adventure and a unique experience. The people in Benin were incredibly welcoming; we received a genuinely warm reception everywhere we went. It was also great to see what the employees and volunteers of Join For Water are achieving locally. As an experience, it was pretty intense — but I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

In 2019, AquaFlanders, the federation of Flemish water companies and sewer management companies, launched an awareness campaign on the theme of tap water. De Watergroep is one of the backers of this initiative. 

Tap water is a healthy and high-grade product that is tested using more than 60 quality criteria every day. On top of that, it is cheaper and better for the environment than bottled water. If everyone were to drink tap water, we could save up to 1.5 billion plastic bottles every year.

STRONGER TOGETHER

De Watergroep has been running its drinKraantjeswater [drinktapwater] campaign for a number of years to promote tap water. “In May 2019, we decided to join forces with other drinking water companies under the umbrella #ikdrinkkraanwater [#idrinktapwater] campaign”, Marketing Projects project leader and former drinKraantjeswater coordinator Lisse Elsen explains. “Everyone who wants to take part can share a selfie, video or Boomerang on social media using the #ikdrinkkraanwater hashtag. For each of these selfies, AquaFlanders donates one euro to the NGO Join For Water. Dozens of Flemish celebrities have so far backed the initiative. We officially brought the ‘old’ drinKraantjeswater campaign to an end at the end of 2019, following a final successful round of campaigning at sports and youth associations.” The new faces of #ikdrinkkraanwater are Herman Verbruggen, who was already involved with the #drinKraantjeswater campaign, Natalia and Tom Waes.

More information: kraanwater.be