Keti Koti: Why Join the Pipe Celebrates Freedom Day with Free Tap Water

Keti Koti marks the date when slavery was abolished in Suriname and the Dutch Caribbean in 1863. The name means "the chain is broken" in Sranantongo, and 1 July is now marked as Emancipation Day (Dag der Vrijheden) across the Netherlands and Suriname each year.

What Keti Koti marks

On 1 July 1863, the Dutch government formally abolished slavery in Suriname and the Dutch Antilles. Enslaved people were required to keep working on plantations for a further ten years under state supervision before full freedom took effect in 1873, which is part of why the day is remembered as the start of a process rather than a single moment. Keti Koti is commemorated every year with ceremonies, marches and community gatherings, most visibly in Amsterdam's Oosterpark and in cities across the Netherlands and Suriname.

Why Join the Pipe marks the day

Join the Pipe's own mission is built around access: clean drinking water for everyone, regardless of where they were born. That's the same idea of equal opportunity that Keti Koti commemorates, which is why we take part each year. It also sits alongside the work our foundation funds directly: for every bottle sold, Join the Pipe donates a bottle to a schoolchild in Africa, and every purchase of a tap helps fund a school refill station or a BluePump well. As a registered Dutch ANBI foundation, all of those donations go straight to the projects, not overhead.