What is UK Coffee Week?
UK Coffee Week is the nation’s biggest celebration of coffee where hundreds of coffee shops and roasters come together to raise funds for coffee growing communities. The campaign supports Project Waterfall, whose ambition is to create a world where no one lives without access to safe water.
What is Project Waterfall?
Project Waterfall is an award-winning charity that brings clean drinking water, sanitation and education to coffee farming communities. Since 2011, UK Coffee Week has raised over £1m, helping over 50,000 people access safe drinking water, dignified toilets and education.
Why Water? Why Coffee?
703 million people globally lack access to clean water. Many live in isolated rural areas, the same regions responsible for growing the coffee we consume daily. Coffee is a water-intensive crop, yet the communities behind it often face severe water scarcity. Project Waterfall exists to correct this imbalance by reinvesting into the very communities that sustain the coffee supply chain.
Did you know?
703 million people around the world still don’t have access to clean water.*
The majority live in isolated rural areas- the same areas growing our coffee.
£1M raised by UK Coffee Week for Project Waterfall since 2011.
50,000 people reached with clean drinking water and sanitation
It takes 140L of water to make one cup of coffee from bean to cup. (World Economic Forum, 2019)
Almost 1 in 10 people don’t have clean water close to home.*
Almost 1 in 5 people don’t have a decent toilet of their own.*
1.7 billion people don’t have clean water inside their healthcare facility*
Almost 2 billion people in the world – 1 in 4 – lack soap and / or water to wash their hands at home.*
*WaterAid, 2025 (https://www.wateraid.org/facts-and-statistics)
