Kayley Durst as her mom Jazmine Durst looks on as she fills a bucket of water during CSRA Walk for Water.
Walking three miles while carrying buckets full of water is how people are raising money for a good cause on the importance of having access to clean water.
Hundreds of people arrived at SRP Park to participate in the sixth annual CSRA Walk for Water, which raises awareness about the difficulties that billions people across the world face regarding clean water. i
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"The Walk for Water aims to educate people about the water crisis that is a reality for many women and children," said Heather Fleming, National Programs Walk Specialist with Water Mission, which is a North Charleston-based Christian organization that helps support clean water access through various projects.
Participants began at SRP Park, then walked on 13th Street Bridge and Augusta Riverwalk before ending at St. Paul's Episcopal church with empty buckets. Once at the church the walkers filled up their buckets with dirty water and walked back to SRP Park and dumped it in a pool so it would be filtered to clean drinking water.
The walk is meant to simulate the distance people across the world must walk in order to gather water for their families' daily usage - and the water is usually contaminated. Fleming said about 2 billion people worldwide lack access to clean water.
"It's kind of stepping in the shoes of our global neighborhood and just empathizing with them for a morning of the daily reality they do every single day," she said.
Jeff Kertscher, who is part of the planning committee for CSRA Walk for Water, said the walk gives participants a chance to experience what it was like to walk three miles for water.
"It opens up people's hearts to empathy," he said.
Due to the impact of Tropical Storm Helene, there was no cost to attend the walk this year.
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The event also helps to raise funds and support Water Mission's clean water projects in many countries. The walk will also support the deployment of its disaster response team to the hardest hit areas of western North Carolina.
TrueNorth Church members Ramona Jackson, Amy Powell and Donald Powell came to the event because they believe it is a good cause.
"I came because I want to offer clean water to the world," Jackson said.
North Augusta resident Nancy Cercy, who is a member of St. Paul Episcopal Church, said she and some of her fellow church members make sure to participate in the event each year because it important to help towards getting global access to clean water.
"It's a phenomenal mission that raises money to help provide this filter equipment to countries, places and cities that don't have water," she said.
Cercy said the event is one way to increase awareness about the issues of not having access to clean water and people should appreciate it more.
"We take clean water for granted," she said. "Some people during the hurricane lost power and couldn't get clean water."
Grovetown resident Aja Blanding said she decided to walk in the event because she wanted to support the mothers and children who have to walk miles to get water .
"It's important to support others and it's a fact that those moms are putting their all out there and having to walk and don't have that clean water," she said.
Augusta resident Jim Logan and his dog have been coming to the event for three years.
"I was walking a lot for my own health when I [first learned about] it and I work at SRP Park, so I said 'let's go walk,'" he said.
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Kertscher said the walk is allowing people in the community to come together for a good cause and to bring some kind of normalcy since Helene.
"Just by our participation today, we can help them," he said.