Building a pipeline from Leidsesquare to Dasmina in Bangladesh
In the months that precede the 30th of November, one of the perks of organizing TEDxAmsterdam is having the opportunity to team up with like-minded organizations that share our passion for a better world.
Join the Pipe.org (www.jointhepipe.org) is one of those foundations that we love and want to support in their goal of bringing clean drinking water to all without it, and to reduce the use of plastic water bottles. This ‘community of tap-water drinkers’ has designed beautiful durable water bottles and carafes shaped like parts of a water pipeline and are using the proceeds of these to support the construction of water projects in Third World Countries. In addition, they give companies and institutions the opportunity of sponsoring a duo-tapwater station; one in The Netherlands and one in Asia.
Did you know we throw away 100 million plastic bottles a day? The cleaning, production, transportation and disposal of bottled water places a heavy burden on the environment. That’s why in June, we came up with the idea of selling the Jointhepipe.org durable and BPA-free bottles and carafes at TEDxAmsterdam in order to be able to place a permanent watertap right outside our venue in the middle of Leidsesquare and install a waterwell in Bangladesh. Months of lobbying at the City Council followed and last Tuesday the good news came: If we raise enough money during TEDxAmsterdam, a watertap will be placed on the corner of Leidsestraat and Korte Leidsedwarsstraat so that Amsterdam’s fine tap water is available to everyone who is out and about in the area. But the beauty of the idea of course lies in the construction of a waterwell in Bangladesh – which is ultimately about a more equal distribution of water around the world and in this case to providing a village of around 200 people with clean drinking water. You can find the location of this waterproject here on Google Maps.
The idea is simple: Delegates attending TEDxAmsterdam on the 30th of November are invited to buy a Jointhepipe.org porcelain water carafe for only 15 Euros (normal price 35 Euros), or –even better- sign up as a Jointhepipe.org member and receive not only a BPA-free plastic bottle (in the shape of your choice) but also a porcelain water carafe which will together only cost 24 Euros + 6,75 shipping costs. If we sell 125 memberships, 200 carafes or a combination of these two, this wonderful idea worth doing will become reality. And that’s what TEDxAmsterdam is all about.
If you’d like to support but are unable to join us at the Stadsschouwburg, then of course you can still contribute to this project! Send an email to irene@tedxamsterdam.nl with ‘JOIN THE PIPE’ in the subject line. You will receive an orderform that you can fill in digitally and your donation will be added to our fund.
Isn’t clean tap water worth spreading, just as much as ideas are? Help an idea worth doing become reality and order your carafe, bottle and membership now 
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