On Monday, March 23, a team of 21 staff members took to the walking track during their lunch breaks to help walk 10,000 steps in five days for WaterAid Australia's Walk for Walk fundraiser.

According to WaterAid Australia's chief executive officer, Rosie Wheen millions of women walk 10,000 steps or more everyday to collect water everyday.

"And sometimes the water is not safe at all. The walk itself isn't always safe," Ms Wheen states on the organisation's website.

The fundraiser took place over the month of March with the MidCoast Council team, under the leadership of staff member, Rachael Abberton, taking on their five days from Monday, March 23 to Friday, March 27.

According to Racheal, they walked in small groups every weekday from both the Taree and Forster offices to coincide with World Water Day on March 22. It was an annual traditional for MidCoast Water which has continued at MidCoast Council.

"We provide the critical services of water and sewer to our community," Rachael explained.

"It's a very important issue to all of us as we know how imperative it is to our community to have access to these services, whereas, so many people around the world don't have access to clean drinking water or sanitation.

"I'd walk this far every day if we had to, to help those people.

"We're all very passionate about helping our global community and raising awareness of how lucky we are to have these services," she said.

The current COVID-19 crisis meant a little bit of adjustment to the way the team went about the walk each day, but it certainly didn't stop them.

"We walked in groups of two on either side of the pavement to make sure we kept the right distance of 1.5 metres," Rachael said.

And the celebratory barbecue planned the final day, Friday, was cancelled.

But the fundraising has continued as per normal.

Donations for each walker have made through the WaterAid website, while team members have raised awareness about the issue both inside and outside of the office.

"We've had significant support from outside the walking team," Rachael said. "I can't believe we've nearly raised our goal of $4000. We are the top fundraiser nationally so far on the WaterAid leaderboard this year."

As first time team leader, Racheal is really proud of what the team has accomplished and is already setting a goal for next year's walk.

"I'm predicting 750,000 steps between the team this year and next year we want to make the goal a million steps between the team."

WaterAid is committed to helping communities gain access to clean water sources close to home, enabling women and girls to spend more of their time going to school, seeking employment, looking after and the Walk for Water is a way that people help raise money and awareness for WaterAid's work.

You can donate to Team MidCoast via https://fundraise.wateraid.org.au/fundraisers/TeamMidCoast/walkforwater-2020