Supporting WaterAid

If you would like to request a speaker to come to your school, club or group to give a talk email us at corporate.affairs@bristolwater.co.uk with details.

Water is life’s most precious resource – without it we would perish in a matter of days. In this country we can take clean drinking water and good sanitation for granted but over a billion people worldwide do not have it and over 2 million people die from diseases related to the lack of safe drinking water every year.

In the early 80s the men and women of the water industry in the UK created the specialist charity WaterAid to combat this problem. Since then over 7.5 million people have been helped through WaterAid supported projects.

In this region over the last 12 years Bristol Water and Wessex Water and their customers have given over £3.7 million to WaterAid helping over 328,000 people. A major part of this coming from the leaflet sent with customers’ bills each year.

Click here to view this years leaflet.

WaterAid
WaterAid’s vision is of a world where everyone has access to safe water and effective sanitation.

WaterAid’s Beliefs
WaterAid works in both rural and urban areas, and currently has programmes in 15 countries in Africa and Asia. In each project and country the circumstances are different; however, there are common features that can be applied to any WaterAid project.

In every project, WaterAid’s response is guided by a set of criteria and beliefs:

• Clean water and sanitation are essential for life and all people should have affordable access to them
• Water, sanitation and hygiene education must be integrated to give maximum health benefits
• Decision-making must be delegated to local partner organisations and communities as far as possible, to avoid dependency and encourage sustainability
• Local people must be actively involved in planning, constructing, managing and maintaining their own projects
• Focus should be on the most vulnerable poor people, especially women and children
• The technologies used should be appropriate and cost effective
• The cost per beneficiary should be kept low
• Focusing on long-term development is crucial, but WaterAid will endeavour to respond to natural disasters and emergency situations in the places where it works
• It is appropriate to seek support and approval from local and national authorities for WaterAid-funded work

To find out more click here to go to the WaterAid website.