Michael Phelps joins campaign to help all of us have clean water.
But the Olympic swimming champion and Paradise Valley resident realizes not everyone is fortunate enough to have sufficient clean water for everyday necessities, let alone enough to swim in.
That’s why he’s teaming with Colgate to help raise awareness about wasting water.
“Water is the Earth’s most precious resource, but without realizing it we often take it for granted,” Phelps said in a written statement.
The 23-time Olympic gold medalist is lending his voice and image to a documentary series called “Tales of Two Minutes.” The name highlights the fact that people can waste as much as four gallons of water in the two minutes it takes to brush their teeth if they leave the water running.
The short films, which appear on Colgate’s YouTube channel, showcase stories from across the nation that can change the way we view water.
The first film in the series highlights the extreme water scarcity at St. Michaels Association for Special Education, the only special-needs school in St. Michaels, Arizona, on the Navajo Reservation.
Due to a lack of clean drinking water at the school, students and faculty needed to bring bottled water not only to drink but for basic hygiene and to clean the medical equipment needed by some of the students and adults who attend.
Efforts to improve the situation are starting to pay off.
“As a result of this project, eventually we’re going to have a total water-filtration system for the entire school.