In the lead-up to World Water Day 2025, these inspiring groups of Young Leaders brought their communities together to drive positive change through clean-ups, education days, creative campaigns, and football festivals.
Supported by their Xylem mentors, the Young Leaders from each project designed and delivered an event to address their cities’ most pressing water issues.
Each event focused on water education and volunteer action, addressing water scarcity, pollution, and hygiene and sanitation, all with the shared goal of protecting and valuing water.
In Bangalore, Young Leaders led a community rally featuring a mural painting to raise awareness of water scarcity.
Meanwhile, in Barranquilla, volunteers worked to restore a neglected natural spring, reviving a once-vibrant space for families and community life.
Elsewhere, Kuala Lumpur’s team installed a water pipe and hosted water education workshops on water scarcity awareness and improving access to clean water alongside a field trip with Xylem, while Melbourne and Nairobi focused on addressing water pollution through river testing, clean-ups, and hygiene awareness sessions.
Nairobi’s event also addressed period poverty and used football and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) education sessions to empower young girls in the community with essential health and hygiene knowledge.
In Manchester and Washington DC, volunteers led interactive workshops and organized football sessions to spark conversations about responsible water use and tackling pollution in urban spaces.
In New York, the community came together to explore the challenges of water contamination and the importance of water conservation through local education.
Young Leaders in Shanghai engaged local youth through a football festival and water-focused competition, while Tacloban City focused on flood –resilience, leading a coastal clean-up and planting mangroves to help their flood-prone community adapt.
Tacloban City’s project was ultimately selected as this year’s winning project, earning a special visit from Man City legend Joleon Lescott who supported their event.
Since 2021, Xylem and Manchester City’s global community programme has been empowering Young Leaders to tackle water challenges in their communities using the power of football, impacting over 17,000 beneficiaries to date.
The joint initiative aligns with Watermark, Xylem’s corporate social responsibility programme, which provides education and equitable access to safe water and sanitation to support healthy lives and help build resilient communities.
