Mina Guli running through the Arabian Desert in Jordan. (Photo Kelvin Trautman)
Mina Guli running across 7 deserts in 7 weeks
Mina Guli, former environmental lawyer, former board director at AustCham Beijing, and CEO of water conservation charity Thirst, is running for awareness. She’s currently crossing the Atacama Desert in Chile, making it the second last desert on her ‘Seven Deserts in Seven Weeks’ awareness campaign. The campaign, which has included runs in Spain’s Tabernian Desert, the Arabian Desert in Jordan, Antarctic and the Simpson Desert, is to raise awareness about the global water crisis.
Mina notes that most people falsely assume a majority of water consumption is through direct contact, however it’s actually the water involved in processing that often goes unnoticed. The figures are alarming to say the least – with coffee contributing to 120 litres of water consumption over tea, and an average T-shirt contributing 2,700 litres of water consumption. As Mina soon discovered, the act of having shorter showers (which saves approximately 60 litres of water) is not the answer to solving an impending global water crisis. The good news – changes in spending and consumption can and will have a major positive impact on global water consumption – and this is the message Mina is spreading through Thirst and her monumental ‘7 Deserts in 7 Weeks’ global awareness campaign. It’s smart choices and informed spending that Mina is promoting, stressing that it’s unviable to expect people to just stop consuming. Instead, she’s urging people to take Thirst’s Pledge to help reach their goal of saving one billion litres of water. So far the pledges have helped save 86,464,796 litres and that’s only set to increase.
All the while, as the numbers climb online, Mina has been crossing through diverse and unforgiving landscapes in order to further promote the cause. She began running in February and will conclude next week in the Mojave Desert, USA, making her the first person to run 40 marathons across 7 deserts in 7 weeks – a truly exceptional feat. To follow Mina’s journey and pledge visit the Thirst website.