As we enter the new year and a new decade, the Race For Water foundation in partnership with Breguet, kicks off the next leg in their five-year world tour. After setting off from Brittany in April 2017, the odyssey enters its fourth year as it heads to Shanghai from Hong Kong, where the expedition and its crew made their previous stop.
The Race for Water mission objective is to work on solutions to save our oceans from the threat of plastic pollution, promoting new and innovative solutions that can turn plastic waste into an energy resource and raising awareness through education by meeting with the youth and decision-makers in several aspects of society. Since 2017, the Race for Water expedition crew have been sailing on a clean, renewable energy-powered vessel that is fuelled by a mix of solar power, hydrogen and kite energy.
The Race for Water expedition team in Kota Kinabalu during their Borneo stop in August 2019
Breguet joined the foundation’s cause in 2018 and have pledged their support for Race for Water’s mission through to the end of the journey in 2021. With passion for the sea, a heritage of equipping the French Royal Navy with accurate chronometres for use on water and their more contemporary collection of marine watches, Breguet and Race for Water have a shared passion for the ocean and seas of this planet, especially when it comes to protecting and conserving them for the future. Breguet supports the mission in their objectives of global educational outreach, scientific pursuits of viable ocean-preserving solutions as well as transforming plastic waste into clean energy through the use of optimised high-temperature pyrolysis technology.
Representatives from several NGOs visiting the Race for Water vessel during their stop in New Caledonia in February 2019
The odyssey launched with 35 planned stopovers, and will continue their Asian leg of the tour in 2020. The season starts with the Race for Water clean energy vessel reaching Shanghai in the beginning of the year, before heading to Japan to carry out their longest stopover in the expedition in Tokyo throughout the month of July, to coincide with the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. Throughout the month, the Race For Water team will be reaching out to local bodies, individuals and schoolchildren to add to their outreach numbers of more than 15,000 people since the mission’s launch in 2017.
As the expedition goes into its second to last year, it’ll be interesting to see what new developments and innovations will be introduced in the fight against environmental destruction. Keep up to date with Race for Water’s mission on their website.
Photos: Peter Charaf, Race for Water
