Matt Damon's Ice Bucket Challenge Nails Two Worthy Causes With One Video

Posted: Updated:

The ALS ice bucket challenge may have raised millions across Canada and in the U.S. over the last few weeks but it's also attracted critics who've panned the viral fundraising method as wasteful, given how millions of people lack access to clean drinking water every day.

As one of the cofounders of, a charity focusing on providing access to safe water and sanitation, you'd think Matt Damon might take issue to the amount of water wasted though the dare.

But as the actor proves with his challenge, you don't have to limit yourself to one worthy cause. All you need is a camera and a bucket of toilet water.

Yup, toilet water.

In the video above you can watch Damon in a washroom scooping out toilet water after finding out friend Ben Affleck and "frenemy" Jimmy Kimmel had nominated him to take the icy plunge.

"It posed kind of a problem for me, not only because there's drought in California, but because I co-founded and we envision a day where everyone has access to a clean drink of water and there's about 800 million people in the world who don't. So, dumping a clean bucket of water on my head seemed a little crazy," said Damon.

"We also wanted to bring adequate sanitation to the 2.4 billion people on planet earth who don't have it so I thought a good thing to do to tie those things together would be to take some toilet water..."

Why the idea of dumping toilet water might seem gross, Damon points out that toilet water in the western world is cleaner than the water some people in developing countries have access to. In some developed countries like Singapore, toilet water is recycled, treated and flows from the taps of residents' home -- some who use it as drinking water, according to USA Today.

The extreme drought California currently faces has also left some municipalities to adopt a “toilet-to-tap” program where waste water from Californians' homes is re-treated and sent back through their taps to reuse for consumption, the Guardian reports.

"Hopefully this will highlight this is a problem and together we can do something about it. I'm happy to take the challenge to knock out ALS, I'm all about that," said Damon just before he emptied the bucket.

What do you think about the ALS ice bucket challenge? Noble or wasteful? Let us know in the comments below.

Celebrity Ice Bucket Challenges
Share this
Current Slide

Around the Web

Jimmy Kimmel Brings Ice Bucket Challenge to a Whole New Level ...

Watch Mark Wahlberg Do the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Blows Up Social Media - WebMD

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner offer cutest Ice Bucket Challenge yet

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Blows Up Social Media

Ben Affleck completes ice bucket challenge

Jimmy Kimmel Accepts Rob Ford's ALS Ice Bucket Challenge (VIDEO)

Matt Damon's ALS challenge leads to 'Robin Williams' and 'Bourne' talk

Jennifer Garner Dumps Ben Affleck for ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

'Wonder Woman' Gal Gadot Takes The Ice Bucket Challenge

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner participate in the “Ice Bucket Challenge”
