NASHUA – For the 11th year, the Thank You Project, led by Chairman Charles Okorie, will be hosting its two-mile Water Walk on Sept. 12.

The event will begin at 9 a.m. at Greeley Park, 100 Concord St. Online registration is available at https://thankyouproject.org/water-walk-registration/.

Participants walk from the park to the Nashua River on Franklin Street to fill five-gallon buckets before returning to the park. When full, a five-gallon bucket of water weighs approximately 42 pounds.

Since 2015, the Thank You Project has been working to raise money to drill wells in Nigeria and put an end to the drinking water crisis in that part of the world.

Okorie said 100,000 Nigerian children under the age of five die every year from contaminated water — a number greater than Nashua’s entire population. He also said the average life expectancy is 54 whereas the U.S. has an average life expectancy of 78.

Last year’s Water Walk raised $50,000 which was used to help fund wells in the Nigerian communities of Achi, Ututu and Mbieri.

Okorie said the cost of installing one well is $35,000 plus a yearly maintenance fee of $720. Provided the funds are available, he said it takes two months to drill 700 feet down to install a purification system and pipes that connect to a spring-fed reservoir. Once the underground infrastructure is completed, water can be accessed through a series of centrally located outdoor spigots.

According to the Nigerian Environmental Survey, the water crisis became noticeable in 1978 with shortages of safe water being reported in the cities of Lagos and Ibadan. The problem became even more pronounced during the 1990s forcing Nigeria to rely heavily on boreholes, wells and private water vendors.

According to the U.S. Agency for International Development, only 30 percent of the citizens in northern Nigeria have access to safe water. It is also not uncommon for temperatures to exceed 100 degrees on a daily basis, particularly during the dry season, which lasts from November to March.