Football charity kicks off fight for global water crisis

When people think of football, they may conjure up glitzy images like the upcoming World Cup and superstars like Lionel Messi and Kilian Mbappé. So, what’s the connection between football and less-glamorous crucial issues like pollution, drought and floods?

Kashif (Kash) Siddiqi, a former professional football player, is Co-Founder of Football for Peace (FfP), a charity that is participating in the Cambridge Peaceshaping and Climate Incubator at the Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation (CCSI) at Cambridge Judge Business School. Football for Peace is behind the campaign Rehydrate the Earth, which has a gala dinner in London on 12 May to raise funds for the Rajasthan Water Revival Project in northern India, which British Airways has provided £200,000 in match funding for, that seeks to revive the Chambal River Basin. The gala also supports young people from across the UK for river clean-ups, water education, and community-driven environmental action. In 2024, Football for Peace submitted formal commitments to the UN Water Action Agenda under its Rehydrate the Earth campaign, a 10-year programme to protect and restore water systems worldwide.

Expected guests include current and former Premier League footballers as well as people from industry and governments, and past guests at such dinners have included former Premier League coach Harry Redknapp and players such as Dimitar Berbatov and Claude Makélélé.

Water is a huge under-discussed issue

“Water is such a huge issue around the globe, but people generally don’t want to talk about water,” says Kash, who played right back for the Pakistan national team, Oxford United in the England Football League and Real Kashmir FC in the India Premier League before an Achilles tendon tear ended his playing days. “There is a lot of attention on sustainability and the UN goals, but people take water for granted and don’t talk about it.

“If you ask a child where water comes from, they’ll say a tap and they have no idea about groundwater and rehydration issues including the UK. Most people have never thought about England having a water crisis. England has 85% of the world’s chalk streams – more globally rare than most people realise. And we are quietly losing them – to pollution, to over-extraction, to ancient aquifers being drawn down faster than they can refill. Some of these rivers are simply running dry. So that’s the biggest challenge for us: how can we harness football to tackle problems related to water.”

Cambridge Social Ventures helps make the charity more sustainable

Football for Peace has been participating since January 2026 in the Cambridge Peaceshaping and Climate Incubator. “We’re helping FfP evolve its organisational structure, build a more sustainable long-term approach and strengthen its forward-planning as a UK registered charity,” says Nicole Helwig, Executive Director of the CCSI. She adds that FfP’s work sits well within the scope of the CCSI’s Peaceshaping and Climate Lab, which focuses on the link between climate change and conflict.

Adds Kash: “The Cambridge Peaceshaping and Climate Incubator is helping us shape what the future looks like for Rehydrate the Earth. The incubator is helping us make this sustainable in the sense of how we go about fundraising going forward, and we don’t need to rely on grants.” So far, the charity has been funded through government partnerships and donations by current and former football players and clubs, with a major donation from Burnley Football Club for a rehydration project in one of the most remote areas of Mozambique.

“This is one of the poorest communities in one of the poorest countries in the world,” says Kash. “There are droughts in the summer, floods in the rainy season – but children are out from sunrise to sunset playing football. We’re teaching them to avoid droughts and floods by capturing rainwater for hydration ponds, and how to avoid crocodiles and other wildlife when they’re out playing.” Other current projects include Ghana, Albania, Miami and Washington, DC, with the UK and US projects focused on water pollution rather than rehydration issues.

Visit to Liberia arranged by footballing legend sparked water campaign

Kash, who was born in London to a mother born in Uganda and father born in India, co-founded Football for Peace in 2015 alongside Elias Figueroa, a former Chilean footballing legend who started the initiative in Valparaiso, Chile. Kash says the focus on rehydration stems from a visit to Liberia as a guest of George Weah, a former FIFA World Player of the Year who was President of Liberia from 2018 to 2024.

“When we were in Liberia, we were playing a game of football during a programme day, and a truck drove by and water dropped off the truck. Children stopped what they were doing and had a fight over water. So, you can do all the peacebuilding in the world but without water there is nothing and certainty no peace. So, we launched Rehydrate the Earth as the first football-oriented water campaign. I’ve been talking about the power of football for the last 10 years. I came from nothing, and it saved my life, gave me hope to take on the world. Football touches 6 billion people and growing. Our motto is simple: ‘Let’s together use this power to return the water – and you return the peace’.”