Imagine life without water. Our intern, Erin, had a brief experience with limited access to water for a few days—one I’m sure most of us have had. Find out how that experience prompted her to do the Dirty Water Dare.

Water is essential for life on Earth.

It makes up about 65 percent of an adult body and covers approximately 70 percent of the Earth’s surface.

Still, 320 million people in Africa lack access to clean water.

Can you imagine?

Probably not. As an American, you probably use close to 100 gallons of water a day. You have probably never worried about whether that water was clean. And you have probably never been too concerned about how you would get it.

Last fall, I was without power for three days. It was chilly. But it was kind of a fun adventure to do everything by candlelight and need to bundle up before bed for a couple nights. The worst part? No water! Because I was on a well, no power meant no water. (I actually had to learn that because I’d never needed to consider it until then). For me, that was tough.

The thing is, my version of “no water” is not the same as that of our friends in Africa. Not even close.

My version meant I had to drink room temperature bottled water and use bottled water to brush my teeth. I was on a lake, so the only effort I had to put forth at all was to fill a bucket of water and walk up a flight of stairs to flush the toilet.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, however, residents only use an average of two to five gallons of water a day. Every year though, 40 billion hours are spent walking to collect that water, which often times isn’t even clean.

So again, can you imagine?

I know I can’t.

It’s because I can’t that I accepted Blood:Water’s Dirty Water Dare. On behalf of those who have no choice but to drink real dirty water every day, I dirtied my otherwise clean water and donated $20 to bring clean water access to one person in Africa.

Won’t you do the same?