On the occasion of The International Day of Sport for Development and Peace on 6 April , the FIBA Foundation Youth Leaders are proving that basketball can be used as a tool to address the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  Domenico Barbato, a Youth Leader from Italy has written this article to show the power of basketball to address SDG 6 - Clean water and Sanitation.

If you talk to a basketball player about carrying water, he might think of the unexciting task assigned to the last of the bench players. But if you say it to NBA player Malcolm Brogdon, the expression takes on a slightly more noble meaning.

Off the court, Brogdon is dedicating himself to an important humanitarian project: securing clean water for communities in East Africa by building solar-powered wells. Its name is Hoops2O.

The shortage of clean drinking water and the concomitant use of contaminated water in daily life is not only a cause of disease and mortality among African populations. There is also a social aspect, which is by no means secondary. In the villages of Tanzania and Kenya - just to mention the areas where the Hoops2O project has been active so far - it is above all women (responsible for the water supply) and children who pay the price.

Every morning they must walk, carrying large buckets, to the nearest well, river or water tank. At best, it is no less than five kilometers away.  Sometimes, in places where it hasn't rained in months, you must dig holes several feet deep to reach the water. The journey becomes even longer if a particular spring dries up and you are forced to reach the next one.

As a result, with each sunrise the primary and unavoidable goal is to secure the water needed to live. This daily march often takes the entire day away from women and their children, depriving them of time to devote to education or other work and activities. This creates a vicious cycle whereby women are forced to remain confined to their traditional roles, preventing them from achieving social empowerment and independence. For themselves and their families. The immediate availability of clean water can change the daily lives of so many people and increase life expectancy.

Hoops2O's intention is to have clean water in or near the village so that they no longer must make these long and exhausting trips every day. They have been actively building wells since October 2018. The construction of each well requires approximately $45,000 and serves 5-6,000 people. The first one was opened in July 2019 in the Maasai-inhabited Ngorongoro region. By mid-2020, ten were opened, meeting the water needs of more than 52,000 people, and the project is still expanding.

Hoops20 is now seeking the support of basketball coaches to raise awareness about the global clean water crisis. They have been identified as possible clean water ambassadors, dedicating one night of an upcoming season's home game to talking about this issue. Together as a team, the Hoops2O coaches will try to go one step further in trying to achieve this important sustainable development goal (SDG 6), which is still lacking in most African countries.