25 days. More than 100,000 signatures. A team of 13 partner organizations. A hundred million lives in the balance.

All this, culminating in ONE day on Capitol Hill.

I was a proud part of a team of nearly 40 ONE volunteers, staff, interns and partners who flooded the Senate yesterday with our petition for the Durbin-Corker Water for the World Act, S.624 — a bill to bring first-time, sustainable water and sanitation access to 100 million people by 2015.

The energy at ONE’s DC headquarters, our initial meeting place, was awesome. That’s what happens when you bring together passionate, motivated individuals for a great cause and a real chance to make a difference. This group was buzzing with news about the petition (we hit the 100k mark on Monday after only 25 days of campaigning) and, of course, S.624.

“ONE’s campaign to ensure passage of the Water for the World Act of 2009 is critical,” explained John Sauer, Communications Director for Water Advocates. “Safe drinking water and sanitation are the bedrock of global health, affecting all aspects of development, education, and basic human security. It is time to end the appalling casualty toll of unnecessary death and sickness due to water-and sanitation-related diseases. Proven solutions exist and can be provided. ONE’s efforts today are bringing us closer to adequately addressing this global crisis.”

Our joint campaign is already getting results. We learned from Shannon Penberthy, Associate Director of Global Government Relations for ONE partner organization Procter & Gamble, that Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) recently agreed to join Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Jack Reed (D-RI) and Johnny Isakson (R-GA) as new cosponsors for S.624. That brings the total count to 10 cosponsors, thanks in large part to the hard work of P&G, Water Advocates, ONE and all our partners. ONE’s Government Affairs team estimates the bill needs at least 20 cosponsors to move forward in the Senate, so we’re already halfway there!

After that exhilarating news, we deployed in small groups to Capitol Hill, where we delivered our petition (with a thank-you note to those senators who already signed on as cosponsors) to all 100 Senate offices.

“The impact of ONE members visiting offices and personally delivering this important message on behalf of the world’s poorest people is immeasurable,” explained Arjun Mody, ONE’s Assistant Director of U.S. Government Relations. “You can’t duplicate the passion and power of ONE members armed simply with a wrist band and a voice. We made an impact today with each and every U.S. Senate office.”

Thanks to our efforts and those of our partners, we believe the Water for the World Act is now poised to reach our goal of 20 cosponsors, and eventually become law. But while that may take more time to achieve, I for one already consider this campaign a huge success — in raising awareness about the 884 million people without access to clean water and 2.5 billion without access to adequate sanitation worldwide, bringing U.S. citizens together on this critical issue, and getting senators and their staff to at least look twice at a simple bill that only exists to do good in the world.

Our volunteers echoed my sentiments. “I am thrilled for ONE, those who participated in the campaign, and all those who will benefit from the eventual passing of this bill. It’s a strong and vital piece of legislation, and I’m proud to have done my part,” said Ola Kareem, a volunteer from Washington, DC.

A heart-felt thanks to all our volunteers, our hard-working partner organizations, and everyone who took a few moments out of their busy lives to sign our petition.

Together, we are changing the world.

-Emily Stivers

Update! We are now within just a few hundred signers of our 100,000 goal. If you’ve not already done so, please sign our petition in support of the Water for the World Act. On that same topic, check out this great post from John Sauer and Katryn Bowe of Water Advocates:

More than 99,000 Americans have signed an unprecedented petition to the Senate in support of global access to clean water and sanitation. The petition calls for more Senators to join Sen. Durbin and Sen. Corker to sponsor the Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2009 (S.624), a landmark bill that would commit the United States to providing 100 million people with first-time, sustainable access to clean water and sanitation by 2015.

The advocacy organization ONE galvanized the campaign with the help of Matt Damon, a clean water champion. “Water is one of the smartest poverty fighting investments we can make,” wrote Damon.

The outpouring of support reveals the growing momentum for solving this global crisis. More journalists, universities, and politicians than ever are beginning to recognize how shameful it is that the United States has not done more on behalf of this preventable issue. And they are acting – louder than in recent memory – to do something about it.

884 million people in the world lack access to safe water, and 2.4 billion people do not even have a proper latrine to dispose of their human waste. This creates a catastrophic burden on women in developing countries (who must walk miles to fetch water), causes 1.6 million children to die of diarrhea yearly and chokes economic growth.

The solutions are known and affordable– but will only be used if there is enough political commitment to funding them. Universal access to water and sanitation is still a pipe dream for many poorer countries, especially nations in Africa. At the current rate the African continent will not even cut in half the proportion of those living without access to sanitation until 2076. This is an international travesty, but the US Government is in a position to kick-start momentum so as to greatly reduce the burden of the international safe drinking water and sanitation crisis.

Already the petition is having an impact. Since the start of the campaign three weeks ago, four Senators have signed on as co-sponsors bringing the total to 10. The petition delivery is scheduled for this week and advocates hope more Senators will sign on. The related bill (H.R.2030) has been introduced in the House by Rep. Blumenauer of Oregon, and has been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

This bipartisan legislation is critical for the water, sanitation and health community. If the American public and politicians commit to solving the water and sanitation crisis, the Millennium Development Goals would be closer to being reached and a push can be made for universal access to water and sanitation—the ultimate goal.

The legislation builds off of the ground-breaking Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005, which made addressing the water and sanitation challenge a priority of US international development policy.

We all saw how public support for AIDS was a catalyst for life-saving action. Now the same might be done for water and sanitation.

-John Sauer and Katryn Bowe, Water Advocates

We’re thisclose to our goal of 100,000 signers on our Water for the World petition, but we need your help to get there before next week. If you haven’t already, please sign the petition, here. And if you’ve already signed, please share it with your friends through a friendly email or posting the link on Facebook, Twitter or another social networking website.

More than 90,000 ONE members from across the country have signed our petition calling on senators to cosponsor the Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2009. This critical legislation will put American ingenuity and resources behind the global effort to bring clean water to the 884 million people who struggle to survive without access to this most basic resource.

But just as dirty water is a major obstacle to ending global poverty, a lack of Senate cosponsors is the biggest obstacle to passing the Water for the World Act. The bill is currently stuck in the Foreign Relations committee and needs more cosponsors to get the attention of senate leaders. Our campaign has already helped convince one senator to cosponsor the Water for the World Act — just imagine how many more will jump on board when we show up to deliver a call to action from thousands of their constituents.

Next week, ONE staff and volunteers are going to deliver this petition directly to Senate offices on Capitol Hill. That means we only have a few more days to spread the word about this important campaign. Please help by signing the petition if you haven’t already, and sharing it with your friends if you have.

It’s going to take at least 100 thousand of us to help bring first-time, sustainable access to clean water and sanitation to 100 million of the world’s poorest people in 2015. Together, I know we can do it.

-Emily Stivers

As you know we recently launched a petition to pressure senators to sign on to the Water for the World Act. In just a short amount of time over 76,000 of you have signed on in support of this important piece of legislation that would help provide 100 million people with first-time, sustainable access to clean water and sanitation by 2015.

Please lend your voice here and ask your friends and family to do the same. Together we can help provide clean water and sanitation to millions of people.

-Chris Scott

True to the expression, “a rising tide lifts all boats,” many of ONE’s partner organizations have helped galvanize action behind ONE’s petition, which encourages cosponsors for the Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2009. Special thanks go to charity: water for allowing us to feature their PSA with Jennifer Connelly and for the following organizations for sharing the campaign with their networks: Global Water Challenge, InterAction, Lifewater International, PATH, US Coalition for Child Survival, US Fund for UNICEF, Water & Sanitation Rotarian Action Group and Water Advocates. The energy and momentum of these and other organizations has already contributed to the campaign’s success and will help us meet our goal of 100,000 signatures.

The Water for the World Act of 2009, a bipartisan bill introduced by Senators Durbin and Corker, will help provide 100 million people with first-time, sustainable access to clean water and sanitation, helping to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The bill currently only has 6 cosponsors and isn’t getting the attention that it deserves. This campaign will put positive pressure on senators to become a cosponsor of the Act and take leadership on this critical issue.

Learn more about the lack of access to clean water and adequate sanitation and how the Water for the World Act helps to address the problem.

-Margaret McDonnell, ONE’s US NGO Partnerships & Faith Relations Team

I just heard that Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA) has signed on as a cosponsor of the Durbin-Corker bill — the Water for the World Act, S.624. And he said he was aware of our petition!

This is great news in our fight to get the Water for the World Act, which would provide 100 million people with first-time, sustainable access to clean water and adequate sanitation by 2015, moving in the Senate. We now have 7 of the 20 cosponsors we need.

We still need 13 more senators, though. You can help by asking your senator(s) to sign on as cosponsors, here.

Having Sen. Isakson on board is a big deal because he sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, where the S.624 is currently stuck. His support of this bill is going to mean a lot in getting it to the Senate floor for a vote. He’s also the ranking member on the Subcommittee for African Affairs, so his support of water and sanitation initiatives is particularly important to the 328 million people in sub-Saharan Africa who lack access to clean water and 546 million who don’t have access to proper sanitation facilities.

I’m joined by everyone at ONE, and the more than 860 Georgia ONE members who signed the petition so far, in thanking Sen. Isakson for acknowledging this devastating problem and standing up for smart solutions like the Water for the World Act.

Having Sen. Isakson as a cosponsor is an exciting step forward, but we still need to keep the pressure on the rest of the Senate. You can help by signing the petition, sharing it on Facebook, and emailing it to your friends.

-Kristi Wooten, Georgia ONE Member

A shortage of co-sponsors, and political will, is blocking Senate action on the Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2009, a bill named for the late Illinois senator that sets a goal, with funding, of providing an additional 100 million people with access to clean water and sanitation. It’s a classic Washington impasse, politicians jostling over competing priorities and limited resources. But there’s a human face to this issue too, one that’s abundantly clear in recemt Pulitzer Center reports from around the world.

A wrenching video by Anna-Katarina Gravgaar captures the daily struggle of slum dwellers in South Delhi, scrambling to siphon a bit of water from the tanker truck that passes through the neighborhood once a day — while across the street, in a high-income compound, residents have built cisterns holding hundreds of gallons to assure that their own taps never run dry.

Ernest Waititu, reporting from the Kakuma refugee camp in the arid Turkana region of northwestern Kenya, join women and girls as they dig down to pockets of water, much of it impure, in the dried up bed of the Tarach River.

Sean Gallagher travels by rail and truck across north central China, documenting in photography and print what scientists consider the most rapid instance of desertification in the entire world.

The Pulitzer Center’s reporting on these issues began last year with the Water Wars project in east Africa, in which journalists from the Common Language Project produced some three dozens stories for public television, public radio and newspapers. The project became the basis for an interactive web portal that now includes over 125 short “share your stories” videos from around the world, from experts as well as students, journalists and concerned citizens.

Many of these short videos were gathered at the World Water Forum this past March in Istanbul, and in follow-on journalist trips to Ethiopia and India organized by the Geneva-based non-profit Media21.

The experts who gathered at the World Water Forum in Istanbul this past March struck two common themes. First, that foul water and inadequate sanitation top the list of global killers, claiming 5,000 lives a day. Second, that low-cost, easily applied technologies are at hand to assure clean water and sanitation to all the world.

What’s lacking is political will. The Senate deliberations on the Paul Simon Water for the World Act may not be on the front pages of most newspapers. Most media outlets aren’t covering them at all. But the issues raised are important — and this is a debate worth joining.

You can find the entire gallery of Pulitzer Center reports – and join the conversation yourself! – at the interactive web portal Water Wars, a collection of reporting sponsored by the Center and links to other organizations committed to raising the visibility of water and sanitation issues.

Several dozen schools and universities have joined the Water Wars discussion already. We welcome more. Email us at globalgateway@pulitzercenter.org and we’ll get you signed up for this innovative (and free!) opportunity to engage people around the world on water and sanitation issues.

-Jon Sawyer, Executive Director, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

On my trip with ONE to Zambia, I walked two miles with a 14-year-old girl to a well—the closest water source to her village. I asked if she wanted to stay in her village when she grew up, and her face exploded into a huge smile. The translator said, “she is being very shy…she says that she wants to move to big city, Lusaka, and that she wants to be a nurse.”

Women and girls, like the one I met in Zambia, bear most of the burden of lack of access to clean water and adequate sanitation. Women are more than twice as likely as men to be responsible for water collection, and on average, women in the developing world walk three and a half miles each day to collect water—time that could be spent in school or at work.

Right now there’s a bill, the Durbin-Corker Water for the World Act of 2009, that will enable us to help 100 million people gain access to clean water and sanitation by 2015. But it needs at least 15 more cosponsors to move forward. Join me in signing ONE’s petition and asking your senators to cosponsor this critical legislation.

Here’s the text of the petition:

Please cosponsor the Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2009 (S. 624), and help provide 100 million people with first-time, sustainable access to clean water and sanitation by 2015.

Economically, water is one of the smartest poverty-fighting investments we can make. My friend Ben and I met with the World Bank and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) in Tanzania, and we saw how a lack of good water infrastructure is holding back businesses. We talked to Prosper Mbarewoai of Allied Chemicals, who estimated his detergent-production business is operating at only 60% capacity because he spends anywhere from two hours to an entire day just getting water.

The MCC in Tanzania is working to revamp the water treatment and supply infrastructure in two major cities, decreasing the risks of water-borne illness and enabling business productivity. In fact, every $1 spent on water and sanitation generates a return of $8 in saved time, increased productivity and reduced health costs in Africa.

Improving access to clean water and sanitation is also an investment in women, making possible the dreams of young girls in Zambia and beyond. To help make this change happen for her and 884 million others worldwide who live without clean water, please ask your senators to cosponsor the Water for the World Act.

-Matt Damon

The Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2009, was introduced in March by Senate Assistant Majority Leader Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Senator Bob Corker (R-TN).

The bipartisan legislation would make water and sanitation important pillars of America’s development policy, with the target of providing 100 million people with first-time access to safe and sustainable drinking water and sanitation by 2015.

The Water for the World Act targets underdeveloped countries with focused initiatives to improve access to clean water and sanitation, fosters global cooperation on research and development, provides technical assistance and capacity-building, and provides seed money for the deployment of clean water and sanitation technologies.  The bill would elevate water as a U.S. foreign policy priority by creating an Office of Water within the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and a Special Coordinator for International Water within the Department of State.

This act builds upon earlier landmark legislation, theSenator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005, which represented the first time a Millennium Development Goal (to halve the percentage of people without access to safe water or sanitation by 2015), was written into American law.

The Water for the World Act was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 17th. With only five cosponsors, the bill isn’t receiving the attention needed for further congressional action. Ask your senators to cosponsor S. 624 now

-Rena Pacheco-Theard